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CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


BY 

GEORGE  A.  MILLER 


Illustrated  by 

ALICE  AND  A.  W.  BEST 

From  Photographs  by  the  Author 


THE  ABINGDON  PRESS 
NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI 


Copyright,  1917,  by 
GEORGE  A.  MILLER 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

Introduction 9 

Foreword 13 

I.    The  Human  Chinese 

Chinese  Human  Nature 17 

Chinese  Children f 21 

Chinese  Theaters 25 

Living  by  the  Road 28 

"  Just  About  So  " 32 

An  Altar  in  Every  House 34 

Domestic  Bliss  (?) 34 

A  Trip  to  Hell 36 

Buddhism  Not  Dead 39 

The  Terror  of  Death 42 

II.    The  Gospel  of  Health 

The  Medical  Missionary '45 

Painless  Dentistry 48 

Shocking  Stories 49 

Guaranteed  Cures 51 

Filthy  Houses 52 

Chinese  Lepers 54 

Strenuous  Medical  Practice *. 56 

A  Chinese  Woman  Physician 59 

Prayer  and  Surgery 60 

An  Impromptu  Operating  Room 61 

Shot  "Forty-Two  Days  Ago" 64 

Dispensary  Every  Morning 67 

An  All- Around  Man 73 

Medical  Missionaries'  Holidays 75 

III.    The  Missionary  at  Work 

The  Big  Job 78 

The  "Mistakes"  of  Missionaries 81 

Keeping  Up  with  a  Missionary 86 

Camping  in  Church 92 

Eight  Miles  of  Abuse  per  Day 94 

Meals  a  la  Chinese 95 

Flight  Under  Difficulties 96 

Breaking  Up  an  Opium  Joint 98 

Missionary  Tiger-Hunting 100 


405724 


:«;  :-4  C'  'J  ■ ..;  A  -.CONTENTS 

Chapter  Paos 

IV.    The  Chinese  Church  and  Its  Heroes 

The  Chinese  Church 106 

Preaching  for  Money 108 

A  Christian  General 110 

Prayer  in  an  OflScer's  Tent 113 

Won  by  Personal  Effort 113 

The  Man  Who  Could  Not  Pray 114 

Faith  to  Fill  the  Church 120 

The  Prodigal  Son  in  Chinese 122 

A  Chinese  Altar  Service 123 

Persecution,  Purification,  and  Power 125 

Accordeon  and  Picture  Roll 127 

A  Graded  Sunday  School 128 

A  "  Church  Uncle  " 130 

Seekers  Everywhere 131 

Two  Hundred  and  Thirty-five  Men,  Twenty-seven 

Women 134 

Sunday  Morning  in  Church 136 

A  Double-Header  Congregation 140 

The  Prayer  Cure  for  Stupidity 144 

Firecrackers  and  Religion 145 

Possessed  by  a  Devil 148 

Chinese  Liberality 151 

Queueless  Church  Officials 157 

V.    The  Leaven  of  Life 

Indirect  Results 159 

Calloused  Hands 163 

A  Cigaretteless  Province 165 

Famine  Orphans 167 

Curing  a  Bread  Line 170 

College  Jinks 175 

Matrimonial  Revolution 179 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


A  Chinese  Congregation  of  Christians Frontispiece 

Paob 

They  Went  Out  to  Meet  the  Bishop 19 

Chinese  Children 21 

A  Family  Group 22 

A  Smile 23 

Chinese  Musicians 26 

Chinese  Chow 28 

On  the  Upper  Yangtse 30 

Plowing 33 

Rice-planting 35 

Judges  of  the  Erring 36 

A  Funeral  Cortege 38 

Shrines 39 

A  Procession 41 

Chinese  Nobleman's  Grave 42 

A  Wail  Was  Heard  Beside  the  Road 43 

An  Examination 46 

Going  to  the  Hospital 60 

Women  Patients 51 

Lepers 54 

The  Visitor  Shot  Him  Dead 57 

The  Woman  Herself  Is  Impressive 59 

The  Prayer 60 

Shot  "Forty-two  Days  Ago" 65 

Eight  Coppers  Required  as  a  Fee 67 

Number  Six  Is  a  Woman  with  a  Baby  in  Her  Arms 69 

Number  Seven 70 

Repulsive  and  Difficult  Work 71 

A  Mission  Print  Shop 79 

Letters  By  the  Way 80 

A  Confucian  Temple 89 

Industrial  Mission 90 

Yen  Ping  Water  Front 97 

The  "White"   Pagoda 99 

Nine  Feet  Between  Tips 102 

A  Young  Church 107 

Ding  Dong 108 

Day  School  and  Bible  Woman 114 

The  Gate 118 


8  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

"The  Prodigal  Son" 122 

Went  Down  on  Their  Knees 125 

Playing  His  Old  Accordeon 128 

Sunday  School 129 

Waiting  for  Church 132 

Burning  Waste  Paper 133 

Church  with  Transept 137 

A  Crowd  That  Filled  Every  Corner 141 

A  Poor  Man's  House 143 

"Let  Us  Pray" 144 

By  the  River 147 

Earning  Ten  Cents  Per  Day 149 

Wayside  Temple 152 

Wrecked  by  a  Typhoon 154 

The  Brothers 155 

His  Prize  Possession 156 

Industrial  Mission 164 

Forgot  the  Church 166 

Monday  Morning  at  the  Orphanage 167 

Orphans'  Farming 168 

Making  Men 169 

Pestilence,  Filth,  and  Death  Here 170 

Hauling  Fertilizer 173 

Chinese  School  Girls 180 


INTRODUCTION 

The  Rev.  George  A.  Miller  spent  some  months 
traveling  with  Bishop  W.  S.  Lewis  in  China  and 
engaging  in  evangelistic  work.  He  did  not  see 
China  from  a  car  window  or  the  deck  of  a  steam 
boat.  He  traveled  on  foot  over  Chinese  roads, 
lived  in  Chinese  inns,  ate  Chinese  food,  slept  on 
Chinese  kiangs  or  beds,  preached  to  Chinese 
sinners,  bowed  at  the  altars  with  Chinese  peni- 
tents, listened  to  the  experiences  of  Chinese  saints, 
and,  like  every  man  of  similar  experiences,  grew 
to  admire,  to  enjoy,  and  to  love  the  Chinese 
people.  These  sketches  are  pictures  of  what  Dr. 
Miller  saw  and  heard.  They  are  concrete,  brief, 
vivid,  true.  Any  missionary,  with  spiritual  in- 
sight and  power  to  portray  what  he  sees,  can  con- 
firm them  by  hundreds  of  similar  incidents.  Dr. 
Miller  insured  the  correctness  of  his  sketches  by 
reporting  his  first  impressions  instead  of  waiting 
until  they  were  blurred  by  hundreds  of  varying 
experiences.  Their  supreme  value  consists  in  the 
fact  that  they  are  straightforward  reports  of 
laboratory  experiments  in  spiritual  life. 

J.  W.  Bashford. 


INTRODUCTION 

The  paramount  interest  of  every  land  must 
have  its  mainspring  in  the  hfe  of  the  people. 
Lofty,  snow-capped  mountain  ranges,  sources  of 
great  rivers  which  cut  their  way  through  succeed- 
ing ranges  of  mountains,  broad  and  fertile  plains 
pregnant  with  the  sources  of  life  for  teeming  mil- 
lions, must  await  the  voyager,  the  artisan,  the 
tiller  of  the  soil,  to  complete  the  picture  or  per- 
manently to  hold  the  interest  or  the  imagination. 
Ancient  shore  lines,  whose  bold  and  rugged 
heights  during  unnumbered  centuries  have  de- 
fended the  mainland  from  the  ceaseless  attacks 
of  a  restless  ocean,  fail  to  rivet  attention  until 
their  coves  and  bays  are  dotted  with  boats,  the 
habitation  of  living  deathless  men  and  women.  A 
man.  Spirit-filled,  eternity  bound,  is  God's  own 
good  reason  for  lifting  great  continents  out  of  the 
sea  and  sending  majestic  rivers  thundering  down 
through  rock-riven  beds. 

The  author  of  this  book  walked  over  ancient 
roads  which  for  centuries  have  wound  their  ways 
through  the  passes  in  the  mountains.  He  listened 
to  the  music  of  the  waters  of  ancient  rivers  as  they 
swished  against  his  boat  by  night  and  day.  He 
sailed  along  the  rugged  China  coast  and  knew  the 

11 


12  INTRODUCTION 

power  of  the  sea  and  its  impact  on  the  functions 
of  the  anatomy  of  our  physical  being.  He  writes 
only  of  the  forms,  customs,  voices,  songs  of  men 
and  women.  The  life  of  the  Chinese  is  his  theme, 
what  the  people  say,  how  they  amuse  themselves, 
what  they  have  done  to  represent  their  ideals  of 
religion,  their  occupations,  their  daily  toil.  His 
theme  is  life  expressed  in  human  form.  It  is  the 
very  source  of  history,  the  spirit  of  philosophy, 
the  paramount  interest  of  human  beings. 
Through  these  pages  walk  and  speak  the  Chinese 
people,  in  terms  of  universal  experience,  testify- 
ing their  response  to  the  stimuli  of  the  Christian 
gospel  and  western  civilization. 

W.  S.  Lewis. 


FOREWORD 

This  book  is  a  collection  of  notes  from  the 
laboratory  of  life.  The  writer  has  no  theory  to 
support  and  no  cause  to  plead.  These  data  con- 
cerning the  social  and  personal  reactions  of  the 
Christian  gospel  in  Chinese  life  may  serve  as  foot- 
notes for  more  extensive  discussions  of  the 
Chinese  people  and  their  problems. 

China  in  her  hour  of  waking  national  con- 
sciousness and  readjustment  to  the  modern  world 
furnishes  peculiar  opportunities  for  observation 
of  the  working  of  the  forces  of  spiritual  faith  in 
the  hearts  of  men.  Once  more  appears  the  fresh 
and  virile  response  of  the  apostolic  age.  Inde- 
pendent of  foreign  molds,  the  Christian  stimulus 
is  producing  a  type  of  character  that  promises  to 
become  an  important  factor  in  the  world-conquest 
of  the  kingdom  of  God.  A  study  of  this  product 
cannot  fail  to  be  rich  in  suggestion  concerning  the 
workings  of  that  transforming  power  that  re- 
makes men  in  the  divine  image. 

It  is  difficult  to  tell  fairly  the  story  of  the  Chris- 
tian propaganda  in  China.  Contradictory  state- 
ments may  be  true  on  both  sides.  Interesting 
stories  may  be  correct  in  detail  but  misleading  in 
inference.     Even  personal  experiences  may  be 

13 


14  FOREWORD 

accurately  described,  but  not  representative  in 
character.  Mingled  trials  and  triumphs,  hard- 
ships and  happiness  are  but  the  surface  ripples  of 
that  deepening  river  of  God  that  bears  the  waters 
of  life  to  millions  of  thirsty  yellow  men. 

The  material  here  presented  was  gathered  dur- 
ing personal  journeys  and  in  the  constant  associa- 
tion with  the  people  who  know  and  understand 
the  Chinese  best,  and  the  statements  made  have 
been  checked  up  with  the  experiences  of  these 
experts.  If  they  may  add  anything  to  the  story 
of  the  expanding  life  of  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ,  they  have  not  been  written  in  vain. 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  HUMAN  CHINESE 

Chinese  Human  Nature — Chinese  Children — Chi- 
nese Theaters — ^Living  by  the  Road — "Just 
About  So** — An  Altar  in  Every  House — Domestic 
y]_         f  ^  Bliss  (?) — ^A  Trip  to  Hell — Buddh- 

ism   Not    Dead — ^The    Terror    of 
Death. 


O  a  far-away  Chinese  city,  late  one 
fall  afternoon,  came  a  missionary 
5^  and  his  Chinese  companion,  weary 
on  their  journey.  Curious  crowds 
surged  about  this  "foreign  devil,"  for  he  was  in 
a  city  where  no  foreigner  had  ever  lived,  and  not 
very  many  had  been  seen  on  these  crooked  streets. 
And  since  there  was  no  mission  compound,  nor 
Christian  church  in  which  to  camp,  it  was  a  case 
of  Chinese  inn  for  the  night.  Now,  a  Chinese  inn 
is  a  little  better  than  the  open  streets,  but  it  is  not 
a  case  of  clean  sheets  and  hot  water.  It  is  "in" 
by  every  sense  of  the  word.  The  foreigner,  for 
purposes  of  safety,  is  quartered  in  the  innermost, 
darkest,  dampest  cell  in  the  place.  Mud  floor, 
brick  "kiang,"  and  entire  absence  of  ventilation 
characterize  this  apartment  de  luxe,  which  is  al- 
ways next  to  the  suite  occupied  by  the  family  pig, 

15 


16  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

for  the  practical  reason  that  the  pig  must  also  be 
kept  in  the  very  safest  place  in  the  house.  The 
pig  is  valuable,  the  foreigner  is  dangerous. 

Baggage  stowed  away,  this  traveler  and  his 
friend  sought  again  the  open  street  for  as  many 
hours  as  possible.  There  would  be  plenty  of  time 
for  the  piggery  later.  Down  the  narrow  street 
stood  a  disheveled  arch  before  a  neglected  shrine. 
Between  the  gateway  and  the  musty  old  temple 
was  an  open  area,  into  which  the  missionary 
wandered,  gazing  upon  the  decaying  symbols  of 
a  dead  faith.  He  did  not  reflect  long,  however, 
for  the  area  filled  with  inquisitive  people,  who 
plied  the  foreigner,  through  his  Chinese  inter- 
preter, with  many  questions.  Whence  came  he 
and  whither  was  he  going?  What  might  be  his 
honorable  age  ?  Where  did  he  get  the  gold  in  his 
teeth?  How  much  did  he  pay  for  his  hat ?  Could 
he  explain  his  curious  complexion? 

Flattered  by  these  expressions  of  kindly  inter- 
est, the  traveler  stood  upon  an  old  bench  and  said 
that  he  would  answer  all  these  questions  by 
preaching  his  gospel  of  good  news.  If  he  should 
in  any  way  criticize  these  tumbled-down  idols  in 
the  old  temple,  it  would  not  be  because  of  any  dis- 
respect for  the  people  but  in  answer  to  their  ques- 
tions. These  idols  were  really  unable  to  do  any- 
thing at  all,  as  one  could  see.  They  had  not  been 
able  to  hold  themselves  up,  but  were  falling  down 
like  blocks  of  wood,  which,  indeed,  they  were.    At 


THE  HUMAN  CHINESE  17 

this  the  crowd  laughed,  recognizing  the  truth  of 
this  sally.  Here  was  a  book,  the  missionary  con- 
tinued, in  which  was  the  story  of  the  true  God, 
who  made  heaven  and  earth  and  all  who  dwell 
therein.  He  was  not  a  God  of  anger  and  malice, 
as  these  images  showed  themselves  to  be  by  their 
faces,  but  a  God  of  love  and  good  will,  who 
thought  so  much  of  men  that  he  sent  his  only  Son 
into  the  world  to  save  them  from  their  sins. 

After  a  half  hour  of  such  preaching  the  speaker 
paused,  only  to  be  urged  to  continue.  For  an- 
other half  hour  seven  hundred  people  gave  close 
attention,  and  when  he  again  ceased  speaking, 
voices  from  the  crowd  asked  when  they  might 
hear  more  of  this.  The  missionary  promised  to 
send  them  one  of  their  own  people,  if  such  could 
be  found,  but  first  asked  how  many  people  would 
like  to  hear  more  in  order  that  when  they  had 
learned  the  way  of  truth  they  might  abandon 
these  idols  and  worship  and  serve  the  true  God. 
About  two  hundred  men  lifted  their  hands  in 
response,  and  fifty  of  them  remained  to  ask  more 
particularly  about  this  new  teaching. 

Chinese  Human  Nature 

Something  has  happened  to  Chinese  human 
nature.  After  forty  centuries  of  paganism  the 
labors  of  the  first  missionaries  produced  nothing 
but  antagonism.  Five,  seven,  and  ten  years  they 
labored  before  the  first  converts  came.    One  con- 


18  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

vert  then  was  cause  for  tears  and  thanksgiving — 
now  two  hundred  outstretched  hands  in  a  heathen 
temple  court!  Some  spiritual  re-agent  has  been 
introduced  into  the  primary  qualities  of  human 
nature,  and  the  attitude  toward  truth  has 
changed.  Political,  commercial,  and  diplomatic 
elements  have  had  much  to  do  with  this  change 
of  front,  but  beyond  and  above  the  forces  that 
may  be  named  is  the  unseen  Hand  that  has 
touched  the  hearts  of  the  Chinese  and  inclined 
them  toward  the  light. 

The  soil  of  Chinese  life  is  rich  in  those  ingre- 
dients which  make  possible  bountiful  harvests 
when  once  the  seed  is  planted  in  human  hearts  and 
the  young  growth  is  freed  from  the  tares  of  super- 
stition and  prejudice.  There  is  a  delicious  human 
quality  about  these  people.  Practically  every 
one  who  comes  to  know  the  Chinese  likes  them 
very  much.  Some  foreigners  after  a  lifetime 
spent  in  China  have  come  to  feel  that  the  Chinese 
represent  the  normal  human  type.  The  marked 
differences  between  the  Chinese  and  the  rest  of  us 
are  nearly  all  accounted  for  by  certain  age-old 
customs.  Remove  these  barriers,  and  the  stream 
of  life  and  habit  flows  in  the  great  standard  expe- 
riences of  universal  humanity.  There  is  no  diffi- 
culty in  understanding  the  Chinese,  provided  one 
can  appreciate  the  results  of  social  ideals  and 
inherited  customs. 

A  stranger  can  work  his  way  into  almost  any 


THE  HUMAN  CHINESE 


19 


situation  in  China  if  he  knows  how  to  smile. 
Without  a  word  of  the  dialect,  a  traveler  can 
induce  hospital  cripples  to  hobble  about  and  pose 
for  him,  can  get  a  crowd  to  line  up,  can  block  the 
traffic  if  need  be — and  all  for  a  smile.  Carrying 
a  film  pack  camera  and  throwing  away  the  blank 
covers,  I  found  that  they  were  always  politely 
returned  to  me  by  Chinese,  who  thought  that  I 
had  dropped  them  by  mistake.    I  finally  formed 


THEY   WENT   OUT   TO    MEET   THE    BISHOP 

the  habit  of  stuffing  them  into  my  pocket  to  save 
the  "face"  of  the  well-meaning  coolie. 

A  Chinese  audience  never  fails  to  get  the  point 
of  a  joke,  provided  it  is  within  the  range  of  things 
that  are  universally  funny.  Comical  incidents 
and  accidents  by  the  road  always  provoke  much 
mirth.  An  audience  of  college  students  will  get 
the  turn  of  a  joke  as  quickly  as  any  people  on 
earth.  Unfailing  good  nature  seems  to  make  life 
endurable  where  it  might  otherwise  go  out  in 
despair. 


20  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

I  fell  into  the  habit  of  telling  a  few  selected 
stories  in  different  parts  of  the  country  and  noting 
the  reactions  as  tests  of  certain  qualities.  Imme- 
diate response  appeared  to  anything  that  ap- 
pealed to  loyalty  to  a  friend,  fidelity  to  parents, 
reverence  for  good  men,  or  sacrifice  for  principle. 

Strong  attachments  spring  up  between  Chinese 
and  foreigners,  not  because  it  is  a  missionary's 
duty  to  be  friendly,  but  because  there  is  a  basis  of 
equality.  A  college  president  said  to  me,  "These 
people  are  just  as  brainy  as  we  are."  "Foreign 
helper"  has  come  to  take  the  place  of  "native 
helper"  in  the  missionary  vocabulary.  I  have 
gone  down  to  the  lower  deck  of  the  big  river 
steamers  and  found  Chinese  who  discussed  with 
great  intelligence  the  national  problems  of  plat- 
forms and  politics  and  inquired  eagerly  for  news 
from  the  United  States. 

There  is  plenty  of  human  nature,  even  in  a 
coolie.  Some  of  the  rickshaw  men  have  a  refresh- 
ing bit  of  wit  concealed  somewhere  about  their 
scant-clad  persons,  and  I  have  seen  river  boatmen 
show  a  consideration  and  sympathy  that  were 
surprising.  Among  students  from  better  fam- 
ilies. Christian  culture  develops  a  type  that  is  very 
fine,  and  conversation  with  these  men  never  fails 
to  put  the  foreigner  on  his  mettle.  Instinctively 
he  knows  that  he  is  dealing  with  a  gentleman,  and 
that  he  must  put  forth  his  best  if  he  is  to  contrib- 
ute his  share  to  the  discussion. 


THE  HUMAN  CHINESE 


21 


The  latent  common  sense  of  the  Chinese  mind 
responds  quickly  to  the  protest  against  barbarous 
and  wasteful  practices.  When  once  the  microbe 
of  progress  gets  into  a  Chinese  system,  inocula- 
tion is  followed  by  a  fast-developing  case  of 
improvement.  Whatever  else  he  may  be,  the 
Chinese  is  a  practical  man.  Don't  talk  railroads 
to  him — build  them,  and  he  will  patronize  them 
from  the  start.  He  is  not  a  mystic ;  we  never  find 
him  lying  on  a  bed  of  spikes  nor  torturing  his 
right  arm,  but  he  has  a  marvelous  knack  of  get- 
ting general  results  by  any  means  that 
may  be  devised  on  the  spot. 

Chinese  Children 

It  was  on  a  railway  train  and 
the  day  was  warm.  Across  the 
aisle  sat  a  Chinese  mother  with 
her  five-year-old  son,  both 
wrapped  in  the  inscrutable 
passivity  of  Chinese  facial 
non-expression.  Frequently 
the  youngster  looked  at  me, 
the  curious  foreigner.  I 
smiled  and  manufactured 
grimaces  for  his  entertainment,  while  he  stolidly 
gazed  at  me,  with  no  more  recognition  than  a 
pound  of  mud.  Occasionally  he  reassured  him- 
self by  a  glance  at  his  mother's  placid  counte- 
nance.   Four  thousand  years  of  repression  looked 


CHINESE   CHILDREN 


22 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


out  through  that  baby  face.    Any  change  would 
have  cracked  it — both  ways. 

After  a  time  the  mother  went  to  the  next  car 
and  left  young  China  alone.  Like  the  sphinx  he 
sat,  detached  from  the  world.  Then  I  began  an 
experiment.  With  such  ad- 
vances as  are  wont  to  win  the 
heart  of  American  five-year- 
olds  I  laid  siege  to  this  in- 
fant citadel  of  conservatism. 
Smiles,  finger  tricks,  sweet- 
meats, and  coaxings  availed 
nothing  for  a  time,  and  then, 
slowly  enough  at  first,  that 
baby  began  to  loosen  up.  He 
looked  up  and  down,  but  his 
pattern  was  gone,  and  the  boy 
within  him  began  to  answer 
the  challenge.  Within  three 
quarters  of  an  hour,  I  had  that 
fellow  laughing  and  playing 
with  me  like  any  normal  child.  It  took  less  than 
forty  minutes  to  knock  away  the  constraint  of 
forty  centuries. 

That  is  what  makes  Chinese  human  reactions  so 
interesting  just  now.  The  hoary  sanctions  are 
breaking  away  and  the  really  splendid  spirit 
within  is  responding  to  the  challenge  of  universal 
experiences  expressed  in  terms  of  the  modern 
world. 


A  FAMILY  GROUP 


THE  HUMAN  CHINESE 


23 


In  port  cities  Chinese  children  show  much  more 
spontaneity.  Their  experiences  with  foreigners 
have  taught  them  several  things,  one  of  them 
being  that  it  is  not  fatal  to  laugh.  These  Arabs 
of  the  street  soon  learn  that  smiles  have  a  com- 
mercial value  with  the  foreigner,  and  the  grins 
manufactured  and  exhibited 
with  requests  for  cumshaw  are 
something  to  see.  A  handful  of 
copper  cash,  thrown  into  the 
midst  of  a  temple  area  full  of 
good-natured,  scrambling  chil- 
dren, produces  a  fair  imitation 
of  amateur  football. 

We  were  toiling  up  a  crooked 
path  toward  the  pagoda  on  top 
of  the  hill.  Down  came  a  roly- 
poly,  rollicking  ten-year-old 
boy.  At  sight  of  us  a  lightning 
change  took  place.  His  face 
fell,  his  shoulders  drooped,  dis- 
tress spoke  from  every  flap  of 
his  ragged  clothes.    He  wanted  ^  ^^^^^ 

a  cumshaw.  Having  been  cumshawed  all  morn- 
ing, we  were  not  impressed  by  these  signals 
of  distress;  in  fact,  we  affected  not  to  see  him  at 
all.  This  was  too  much,  and  young  China 
squared  himself  for  a  demonstration.  Shaking 
out  his  pocket,  he  showed  that  it  was  empty. 
Then  pulling  up  his  ragged  shirt,  he  patted  his 


24  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

round,  bare  little  "tummy"  to  indicate  that  it  was 
also  empty,  and  with  the  most  winning  smile 
in  the  world,  again  he  suggested  a  cumshaw. 
Verily,  he  had  his  reward. 

The  river  beggars  who  infest  the  landing  places 
of  the  Yangtse  are  a  wheedling  lot  of  whiners, 
but  some  of  the  children  are  very  amusing  and 
withal  good  money-getters.  While  watching 
the  antics  of  a  boatload  of  these  youngsters 
a  foreign  lady  passenger  on  the  upper  deck 
dropped  a  cheap  little  scarf  pin  into  the  beggar's 
basket  for  the  ten-year-old  girl  below.  The  re- 
sult was  interesting.  She  examined  the  pin 
closely,  then  discovering  its  use  and  the  manner 
of  its  fastening,  pinned  it  upon  her  ragged  little 
dress  and  at  once  lost  all  interest  in  the  begging 
business.  She  looked  at  the  pin  as  if  fascinated, 
and  then  began  to  straighten  and  smooth  her  rags 
and  try  to  arrange  them  in  better  fashion.  She 
smoothed  her  hair,  drew  her  bare  and  dirty  feet 
out  of  sight,  and  when  the  steamer  drew  away 
she  was  still  busy  with  her  new  finery.  Two 
weeks  later  the  same  travelers,  returning,  found 
the  same  little  girl  with  that  pin  in  its  place. 
Recognizing  the  giver,  she  pointed  proudly  to 
the  ornament  and  smiled  a  thanks  that  was  gen- 
uine enough. 

Chinese  boys  have  a  fairly  good  time  of  it,  but 
where  foot-binding  is  still  practiced  the  girls  have 
trouble  enough  for  two.     There  is  something 


THE  HUMAN  CHINESE  25 

indescribably  pathetic  in  the  sight  of  these  little 
girls  sitting  helpless  and  silent  in  the  doors  of 
their  homes,  often  red-eyed  and  tear-stained. 
Mission  influences  are  slowly  doing  away  with 
this  barbarism,  but  all  too  many  yet  are  the  crip- 
pled babies  condemned  by  custom  to  a  life  of 
helplessness  and  torture. 

Chinese  Theaters 

We  were  walking  ahead  of  our  coolies,  the 
bishop,  the  missionary,  and  I,  through  the  beau- 
tiful rice  fields  of  Hinghwa.  The  three-thou- 
sand-year-old road  of  rough  stones  made  its 
ancient  way  among  the  paddie  fields  and  Chinese 
villages  scattered  about,  fifty  of  them  in  sight  at 
once. 

Off  to  the  right  rose  a  discordant  bray  of  noise. 
Bedlam  and  chaos  seemed  to  be  performing  a 
duet.  Nearer  we  drew,  louder  and  deadlier  grew 
the  din.  I  looked  my  question,  and  the  bishop 
answered,  "A  Chinese  theater,  that's  all." 

"But  I  want  to  see  it,  and  it  is  perhaps  a  li  off 
the  road." 

The  bishop  looked  at  me.  "Young  man,"  he 
said,  "the  theater  is  included  in  the  list  of  worldly 
amusements  proscribed  by  the  Discipline  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  Your  desires  are 
evidence  of  a  worldly  mind." 

"But,"  I  temporized,  "the  Discipline  says 
nothing  about  Chinese  theaters.     You  can  see 


26 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


and  hear  for  yourself  that  they  are  different,  indi- 
vidual, and  exclusive.  Per- 
haps some  great  historical 
pageant  is  now  enacted  amid 
yonder  pandemonium,  and  I 
may  never  again  have  oppor- 
tunity to  take  a  course  in 
Chinese  histrionics.  Really, 
Bishop—" 

"Young  man,  nothing  is  so 
satisfying  as  a  Chinese  theater. 
Had  the  framers  of  the  fam- 
ous paragraph  ever  heard  one, 
they  would  have  prescribed  a 
course  in  Chinese  theatricals 
for  the  soul  culture  of  every 
spirit  destined  for  the  higher 
ranges  of  patience  and  suffer- 
,ing.  I  hope  that  you  may  be 
permitted  to  drink  your  fill  of 
first-night  performances,  but 
the  sun  drops  low  in  the  west, 
and  Hinghwa  is  still  fifteen  li 
away." 

That  night,  in  a  mission- 
ary's home,  I  was  shown  to 
a  clean  room  and  a  spring  bed, 
the  first  I  had  met  for  two 

weeks.    Here  I  would  find  rest  for  my  bones  and 

slumber  for  my  eyelids. 


CHINESE   MUSICIANS 


THE  HUMAN  CHINESE  27 

No  sooner  had  I  dropped  my  burdens  in  the 
corner  than  I  became  aware  of  a  familiar  clamor 
across  the  street.  There,  in  full  blast,  was  being 
enacted  before  my  eyes  the  first  act  of  a  Chinese 
mystery  play  on  a  stage  erected  for  the  purpose 
before  a  gaping  crowd  that  packed  the  street  for 
half  a  block  away.  At  last  I  was  to  see  and  hear 
to  my  heart's  content,  and  that  from  my  own  pri- 
vate box  seat  in  the  window!  What  would  the 
bishop  say  now? 

But  episcopal  experience  was  not  to  be  gain- 
said. Within  a  half  hour  I  was  satisfied.  An 
hour  later  I  was  running  over.  In  two  hours  I 
was  saturated  through  and  through  with  Chinese 
theater.  After  three  hours  the  uproar  filled  every 
nook  and  corner  of  that  town  for  three  squares 
away.  Four  hours  passed  and  the  players  were 
warming  to  their  work.  Five  hours,  six  hours, 
and  not  a  wink  of  sleep  in  this  my  first  spring  bed 
for  two  weeks.  At  three  o'clock  in  the  morning 
the  season  seemed  at  its  height.  About  three- 
thirty,  exhaustion  set  in  for  players  and  spec- 
tators, and  by  four  o'clock  quiet  had  fallen 
upon  the  shattered  atmosphere.  I  slept  three 
hours  and  appeared  before  the  bishop  like 
one  who  has  been  through  purgatory  and  back 
again. 

"You  look  tired  this  morning.     What's  the 
matter?"  inquired  the  kindly  superintendent. 
"I  had  seven  hours  of  Chinese  theater  last 


28 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


night,  just  outside  my  window,"  I  replied,  miser- 
ably. 
^       And  the  bishop  smiled. 

Living  by  the  Road 

Traveling  one  day  through  a 
wide  country  where  I  was,  per 
force,  silent  and  dumb,  I  met 
at  noontime  a  missionary 
who  spoke  vigorous  and 
fluent  Chinese,  and  we 
camped  together  in  the 
little  churchyard. 

Provisions  being  low  in 
the  hampers,  the  missionary 
went  forth  and  soon  re- 
turned with  the  native,  who 
served  us  some  of  the  most 
toothsome  viands  that  I  had 
tasted  in  many  weeks.  I 
don't  know  what  the  names, 
were,  nor  the  ingredients, 
but  they  were  boiling  hot, 
-(CI^^'^^  and  as  I  sat  there  on  the 
chapel  steps  and  fed  myself 
that  Chinese  "chow"  with 
clean  chopsticks,  there  came 
to  me  that  first  glimmer  of 
Chinese  consciousness  which  a  traveler  must 
acquire  if  he  is  ever  to  "get"  any  people.    I  saw 


CHINESE      CHOW 


THE  HUMAN  CHINESE  2d 

dimly,  but  I  did  see,  that  there  is  a  Chinese  rea- 
son for  the  Chinese  way  of  doing  things.  It  may 
not  be  my  way,  but  it  is  his  way,  and  for  him  con- 
stitutes a  satisfactory  answer  to  the  riddle  of  life. 

As  I  went  my  way  and  pondered  this  matter 
through  successive  days,  the  conviction  and  con- 
sciousness grew  within  me  that,  after  all,  the 
Chinese  are  not  so  foolish  as  they  seem. 

Chinese  feasts  do  not  grow  by  the  roadside,  but 
some  very  eatable  things  may  be  purchased  for 
a  few  coppers  in  almost  any  village.  Noodles 
are  always  good.  Sweetcakes  the  foreigner  de- 
clines, as  they  are  not  hot  and  it  is  always  fly  time. 
Fish,  if  fresh  and  hot,  is  good  if  not  too  highly 
seasoned  with  nobody  knows  what.  The  smell  of 
Chinese  streets  does  not  suggest  a  wedding 
dinner,  but  the  dishes  served  on  the  little  tables 
may  be  very  good  just  the  same. 

"American  or  Chinese?"  inquired  my  friend 
one  day  as  we  sat  down  in  a  pretentious  city 
restaurant. 

"Chinese,  by  all  means,"  I  replied,  for  I  had 
learned  a  few  things  in  three  months.  I  can't 
name  all  the  things  that  they  brought  out,  but 
they  were  good — and  I  live  to  tell  the  tale,  which 
is,  after  all,  the  proof  of  the  case. 

Venders  of  all  sorts  of  eatables  line  the  station 
platforms  of  the  railroads.  Nuts,  fruit,  candies, 
rice,  and  nicely  browned  roast  chicken  may  be  had 
for  a  few  cents.    After  several  efforts  I  bought 


30 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


a  plump  chicken,  brown  and  basted,  for  thirty 
Mexican  cents,  and  the  meat  was  fresh  and  good. 
The  poor  fellow  of  whom  I  bought  it  was  thinly 
clad  and  shivered  in  the  bitter  cold  wind  with 
snow  on  the  ground,  yet  he  bowed  and  smiled  in 
response  to  my  payment  of  the  price,  and  when 


ON    THE    UPPER    YANGT8E 


I  looked  at  him  out  of  the  car  window  he  smiled 
again.  Poor  shivering  fellow,  there  was  a  soul 
back  of  the  smile. 

I  traveled  with  one  American  possessed  by  the 
fixed  idea  that  nothing  Chinese  could  be  fit  to 
eat.  At  last  personal  eloquence  won  the  day,  and 
a  beginning  was  made  on  a  delicious  dish  of  rice, 
fine  meat  and  flavoring,  hot  from  the  dining  car. 


THE  HUMAN  CHINESE  31 

Antagonism  gave  way  to  doubt,  doubt  to  toler- 
ance, and  tolerance  faded  into  acceptance.  En- 
thusiasm closed  the  meal  and  the  day  was  won  for 
Chinese  chow. 

A  Chinese  wedding  feast  is  quite  worth  while. 
Who  sits  next  to  the  bride  ?  Sh — !  The  Chinese 
bride  is  never  present  at  her  own  wedding  feast. 
Such  impropriety  would  be  unpardonable,  as 
would  any  reference  to  her  by  her  husband  or  any 
of  his  friends.  Here  is  a  feast  given  by  a  man 
who  was  married  six  months  before  and  post- 
poned the  feast  for  reasons  of  convenience  to  the 
groom.  Whose  convenience  would  you  consult 
in  such  matters?  Obviously,  the  man's,  as  no 
woman  is  ever  present  at  a  wedding  feast.  This 
is  a  very  good  feast,  however,  for  it  is  prepared 
by  experts,  and  where  in  the  world  can  be  found 
better  cooks  than  the  Chinese?  Eight,  sixteen, 
or  perhaps  twenty-four  courses,  many  of  them 
unnamable  and  some  of  them  to  the  foreigner 
unpalatable,  but  all  of  them  hot  and  "safe." 
There  is  no  need  to  leave  the  table  hungry.  It  is 
a  mark  of  politeness  to  help  the  guest  to  choice 
tidbits  with  the  personal  chopsticks  of  the  host. 

One  learns  to  gauge  his  eating  by  the  probable 
number  of  courses  and  thus  avoid  digestive  bank- 
ruptcy. When  the  feast  is  finished  there  is  just 
one  way  to  express  pohte  satisfaction  over  the 
meal.  Draw  back  from  the  table,  rub  your  right 
hand  over  the  place  where  the  dinner  is  supposed 


32  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

now  to  be,  draw  a  long  breath,  and  say  "Ah — h" 
closing  with  a  sigh  and  a  grunt.  It  is  easily  done 
and  will  bring  a  glad  smile  to  the  face  of  your 
host.    His  feast  has  been  a  success. 

Globe-trotters  who  rush  through  China  living 
in  foreign  hotels,  imitating  American  conditions 
as  closely  as  possible,  see  China  through  a  car 
window  or  from  a  steamer's  deck  and  learn  little. 
You  must  know  a  country  by  each  of  the  ^ve 
senses  before  you  can  understand  its  life, 

"Just  About  So" 

There  is  one  Chinese  expression  that  comes 
near  being  universal.  North,  south,  east,  and 
west  you  hear  it:  "Cha  bah  doah."  Say  it  like 
one  word  and  you  will  have  it.  What  does  it 
mean?    "Just  about  so." 

Nothing  is  exact,  nothing  is  final  in  China; 
everything  is  just  about  so.  Two  and  two  make 
— just  about — four.  Anything  between  three 
and  three  quarters  and  four  and  an  eighth  will  do, 
with  the  margin  always  on  the  side  of  the  wily 
trader.  Order  a  square  box  from  the  carpenter 
and  it  will  be,  not  exactly  square,  but  just  about 
square. 

Not  only  so,  but  a  Chinese  will  use  any  means 
at  hand,  any  material  to  be  had,  and  in  some  sort 
of  way  get  something  near  the  result.  It  is  not 
an  exact  process  nor  a  finished  product,  but  it  will 
answer  the  purpose  and  serve  the  end  in  view. 


THE  HUMAN  CHINESE 


33 


Probably  no  people  on  earth  has  ever  become  so 
expert  in  using  any  means  to 
reach  by   any   route   some- 
thing that  will  answer  the 
requirements  of  the  case. 

Let  pestilence  sweep  over 
the  land  and  decimate  the 
population;  next  year  they 
are    at    it    again    in    some 
way  retrieving  their  ruined 
homes.     Shake  to  pieces  by 
earthquake  the  house  of  a 
Chinese,  burn  with  the  fire 
the    ruins,    wash    away    his 
crops  with  a  flood,  kill  his  cattle 
by  pest,  steal  his  plow  and  pilfer 
his  pig,  and  leave  him  naked  and 
starving  on  a  bare  plot  of  ground. 
Anyone  else  would  lie  down  and 
die;  but  if  you  come  back  a  year 
later,  you  find  that  man  still  alive, 
making  shift  in  some  sort  of  way 
to  get  a  new  start  on  the  ruins  of 
his  former  prosperity.    If  he  has 
no  house,  he  will  make  a  rude 
shelter   of  grass.      Cattle   gone, 
he  will  pull  the  plow  himself,  or 
harness  his  wife.    If  there  be  no 
plow,  he  will  use  a  hoe,  or  a  sharp  stick;  in  some 
way  he  will  toil  and  starve  and  get  a  new  start. 


PLOWING 


34  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

It  is  true  that  the  Chinese  are  not  an  exact  people. 
If  they  were,  half  of  them  would  perish. 

An  Altar  in  Every  House 

One  may  travel  for  weeks  at  a  time  through 
village  country  in  China  and  see  the  interiors  of 
thousands  of  Chinese  homes.  There  is  no  effort 
at  concealment  and  no  sense  of  violated  propriety 
if  the  traveler  gazes  frankly  upon  whatever  may 
be  seen  within. 

I  have  done  just  this,  and  do  not  remember 
that  I  have  seen  the  interior  of  any  houses  which 
did  not  contain  some  place  or  object  of  worship. 
A  tablet,  a  niche  in  the  wall,  an  image  large  or 
small — something  in  that  house  represented  the 
presence  of  the  unseen  and  the  unknown.  Of 
course  Christian  homes  are  the  exceptions,  but 
the  idea  of  propitiating  the  unseen  is  everywhere 
present. 

This  does  not  mean  reverence  nor  worship  in 
the  Christian  meaning  of  the  words.  Perhaps  it 
means  merely  fear.  Call  it  superstition  if  you 
please,  but  it  does  mean  that  no  Chinese  is  foolish 
enough  to  ignore  the  existence  of  forces  that  he 
cannot  see  and  spirits  that  he  cannot  know,  until 
some  one  tells  him  their  story. 

Domestic  Bliss  (?) 

It  was  a  young  woman,  a  missionary  in 
southern  China,  who  set  out  one  morning  for  a 


THE  HUMAN  CHINESE 


35 


day's  journey  through  a  part  of  her  territory. 
Her  road  led  directly  through  a  small  village,  and 
hard  by  the  village  were  a  man     (^    X 
and  his  wife  working  in  adjoin- 
ing fields.    They  were  working 
hard  enough,  but  lest  the  time 
should  seem   long,   they  were 
quarreling  in  vigorous  fashion, 
and,   after   time-honored    Chi- 
nese   custom,    were    relieving 
their    minds    by    calling    each 
other    every    variety    of    vile 
names  that  example  had  taught 
or  ingenuity  could  suggest. 

The  missionary  soon  passed 
out  of  hearing  of  this  domestic 
verbal  combat,  and  at  the  close 
of  the  day  returned  to  the 
village  by  another  road.  Re- 
membering the  scene  of  the 
morning,  she  inquired  what  had  ^ 
become  of  the  man  and  his  wife. 

"Come  out  here  and  see,"  the 
villagers  replied. 

It  was  but  a  moment's  walk 
and  the  missionary  went  out  to 
see.  What  she  saw  was  the  same  man  and  wife 
of  the  morning  in  adjacent  fields,  still  quarreling. 
Both  had  completely  lost  voice  and  they  were  now 
standing  making  hideous  faces  at  each  other. 


RICE-PLANTING 


36 


CHIlSrA  INSIDE  OUT 


A  Trip  to  Hell 


'Would  you — er — like  to  take  a  trip  this  morn- 
ing to  a  Chinese  hell?" 

"Return  tickets  guaranteed?*' 
"If  you  pass  the  tests." 
This  Hinghwa  Hell,  hke  that 
of  the  modern  pulpit,  is  sadly 
neglected  and  much  out  of  re- 
pair.   Time  has  faded  its  horrors 
and   made    almost   undecipher- 
able some  of  its  painted  tortures. 
We  found  the  old  temple  full 
of   government   soldiers.      Chi- 
Inese    temples    make    excellent 
barracks,  and  no  one  objects. 
Permission  to  enter  was  easily 
obtained,   and  within  an   open 
court  we  found  the  ten  torments 
painted  on  the  walls,  beginning, 
of  course,  at  the  right. 

First  comes  the  judge  of 
Hades,  a  most  unpleasant-look- 
ing party,  standing  in  an  atti- 
tude of  fierce  anger  as  a  warn- 
ing to  all  who  might  be  inclined 
to  come  his  way.  Immediately 
following  this  official  is  the  pic- 
ture of  the  pool  of  green  filth  into  which  are 
thrust  the  unfortunate  women  who  die  in  child- 


JUDGES    OP   THE 
EBBING 


THE  HUMAN  CHINESE  37 

birth.  Just  why  this  distressing  punishment 
should  be  inflicted  upon  those  women  who  fail  in 
motherhood's  supreme  test  does  not  appear.  In 
point  of  fact,  no  one  tries  to  justify  any  of  the 
scenes  that  follow. 

Hanging  on  trees  with  immense  thorns  thrust 
through  their  bodies  are  the  men  who  have 
offended  the  law  of  propriety.  For  quack  doctors 
is  reserved  the  fate  of  being  ground  to  pieces  by 
rolling  stones,  after  which  come  the  stone  mills 
of  the  gods,  grinding  up  the  disembodied  souls  of 
the  unfortunates  who  have  sinned. 

The  next  scene  is  gruesome  enough.  A  huge 
cross-cut  saw  is  dragged  back  and  forth  over  the 
prostrate  body  of  a  guilty  sinner,  who  is  slowly 
separated  into  two  parts.  A  big  chopping  knife 
makes  mincemeat  of  the  next  unfortunate.  Over 
a  roaring  fire  an  iron  toasting  rack  holds  its  own 
victim,  and  another  poor  sinner  is  bound  to  a  red- 
hot  cylinder  and  rolled  about,  writhing  in  tor- 
ment. 

A  curious  comment  upon  the  scarcity  of  food  is 
seen  in  the  spectacle  of  a  cauldron  of  boiling  oil 
into  which  are  plunged  the  people  who  have 
wasted  rice  when  in  the  body.  The  last  scene  is 
that  of  a  man  into  whose  split-open  back  boiling 
oil  is  being  poured  in  liberal  quantities. 

Much  ingenuity  has  been  displayed  in  devising 
these  various  tortures.  These  spirits  must  have 
been   indestructible,   or  they   would  have   been 


38 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


ground  to  fog  and  vanished  in  smoke.  It  is  much 
like  the  heroes  of  the  comic  supplement — smashed 
to  bits,  ground  to  powder,  blown  to  the  skies, 
eaten  by  elephants,  yet  appearing  with  smiling 
serenity  in  the  next  issue. 

The  most  interesting  thing  about  this  exhibit  is 
its  striking  likeness  to  the  Purgatorio  of  the  great 
Italian.  We  may  smile  or  shudder  over  this 
Hinghwa  Hell,  but  we  are  not  so  far  removed 
from  the  same  thing.    Crude  and  ghastly  as  it  is. 


,^ji»-- 


fr^.. 


A    FUNERAL    CORTEGE 


there  is  in  it  enough  likeness  to  the  Inferno  to 
suggest  some  interesting  reflections  upon  the  slow 
development  of  religious  ideals  and  the  similarity 
of  Chinese  and  Italian  imaginations. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  this  old  Hell  is  no 
longer  a  center  of  Chinese  interest.  Once  it  paid 
its  promoters  well ;  now  it  is  a  relic,  and  soon  these 
faded  walls  will  be  bare.  In  the  same  city  where 
I  had  to  hunt  for  this  barbarism  of  the  past 
I  found  without  difficulty  crowded  Christian 
schools,  an  industrial  orphanage  and  farm,  a  large 
mission  printing  house,  a  well-equipped  Christian 


THE  HUMAN  CHINESE 


39 


hospital,  a  Sunday  morning  congregation  of  two 
thousand,  and  within  a  year,  over  thirteen  hun- 
dred had  enrolled  themselves  as  inquirers  after 
the  Christian  way. 

The  brimstone  and  frying-pan 
hell  may  be  out  of  fashion,  but 
the  saving  grace  of  God  is  doing 
greater  work  than  ever  before. 

Buddhism  Not  Dead 

In  a  southern  city  of  twenty- 
five  thousand  souls  there  are  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  Bud- 
dhist temples.  In  the  early  morn- 
ing hours  the  booming  gongs  of 
these  shrines  echo  through  the 
streets  and  out  into  the  little 
valleys,  and  the  shaven-headed 
priests  are  in  evidence  every- 
where. Most  of  the  buildings, 
like  nearly  all  Chinese  temples, 
are  old  and  neglected,  but  two 
or  three  of  them  are  in  good  repair 
and  well  kept.  Up  and  down  the 
Min  River  stand  these  temples  shrines 
and  pagodas,  most  of  them  erected  as  propitia- 
tions to  the  spirits  of  the  dangerous  river.  The 
number  of  temples  in  any  given  place  seems  to 
be  about  in  proportion  to  the  danger  of  the  rapids 
at  that  particular  point.    The  river  men,  in  the 


40  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

constant  struggle  with  danger  and  frequent 
wrecks,  feel  that  if  they  are  to  receive  considera- 
tion at  the  hands  of  the  spirits  of  the  waters,  they 
must  do  their  part  to  support  the  temples  that 
line  the  banks. 

I  visited  the  best-kept  temple  in  Yen  Ping 
with  a  missionary  who  maintained  cordial  rela- 
tions with  the  priests  of  the  place.  Beautiful  for 
situation,  this  temple  was  built  on  a  great  rock 
overhanging  the  river,  and  afforded  a  magni- 
ficent view  of  the  water  and  hills  beyond.  The 
priests  received  us  graciously  and  served  refresh- 
ments while  we  enjoyed  the  cool  air  and  beautiful 
view.  Conversation  soon  drifted  into  a  discussion 
of  religious  matters. 

"Buddhism,"  the  intelligent  priest  assured  us, 
"is  the  best  that  the  world  has  yet  produced  in 
the  way  of  a  religion  for  men.  The  great  Buddha 
was  the  teacher  who  could  point  the  way  of  life." 

We  suggested  that  while  Buddha  had  taught 
many  good  things  and  true  about  the  path  of  life, 
he  had  failed  to  furnish  any  power  to  enable  his 
followers  to  walk  therein.  What  was  needed  was 
some  power  to  help  men  live  right. 

This,  our  friend  admitted,  was  true.  "But," 
he  demurred,  "what  are  you  going  to  do  about  it? 
There  is  no  help  anywhere  that  can  change  the 
hearts  of  men.  Evil  desires  are  part  of  our 
natures  and  we  cannot  change  them." 

We  suggested  that  Jesus  Christ  could  change 


THE  HUMAN  CHINESE 


41 


the  heart  of  a  man  so  that  he  would  no  longer 
desire  evil,  but  good.  It  was  a  matter  of  expe- 
rience that  those  who  followed  him  closely  and 
loved  him  much  did  find  power  to  live  good  lives 
instead  of  evil. 

"Yes,"  he  said,  for  he  had  heard 
of  the  "Jesus  doctrine."  "Yes,  I 
know  that  you  say  so,  but  there  is 
no  Christ  except  in  our  own 
hearts.  Every  man  is  his  own 
Christ.    There  is  no  other  help." 

"What  hope  is  there,  then,  for 
men  who  wish  to  do  better,  if  there 
is  really  no  Christ,  and  Buddha 
cannot  help  us  ?" 

With  an  unforgettable  shrug  of 
the  shoulders  he  said :  "There  is  no 
hope  at  all.  We  must  do  the  best 
we  can,  that  is  all." 

He  showed  us  through  the 
temples.  They  were  clean  and 
in  good  repair.  Images,  relics,  carvings,  chests, 
bells,  and  elaborate  furnishings  abounded.  In 
the  private  apartments  of  this  high  priest  the 
Buddha  sat  serenely  on  the  writing  table.  Here 
was  a  little  corner  of  beautiful  ferns  and  there 
was  the  "heaven's  well"  with  its  light  and  air  from 
'above.  Over  there  was  the  miniature  pagoda, 
and  very  much  in  evidence  was  the  eashbox  for 
offerings  of  the  devout. 


A    PROCESSION 


42 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


Withal  it  was  the  best-kept  temple  and  the 
most  intelligent  priest  I  had  seen;  it  was  Bud- 
dhism at  its  best,  and  the  last  word  of  that  best 
that  Buddhism  had  to  say  was  this:  "There  is  no 
hope.    We  must  do  the  best  we  can,  that  is  all." 

And  there  are  people  who  say  that  we  do  not 
need  the  Christian's  God  in  China! 


The  Terror  of  Death 

When  a  Chinese  overseer,  employer,  or  "lord 
of  the  boat"  is  put  to  his  last  extremity  for  curses. 


CHINESE    NOBLEMAN  S    GRAVE 


he  brings  out  his  fifteen-inch  artillery  and 
screams,  "You  will  die,  you  will  die,  unless  you 
do  better  than  that."  Beyond  that  dire  threat 
there  is  nothing  to  be  said. 

There  is  a  hopeless  horror  about  death  in  a  land 
where  there  is  no  hope  beyond  that  we  in  a 
country  of  Christian  ideals  cannot  know.  There 
are  plenty  of  people  among  us  whose  future  pros- 
pects are  no  better  than  those  of  the  pagan 


THE  HUMAN  CHINESE 


43 


Chinese,  but  Christian  teaching  has  robbed  death 
of  its  sting,  even  for  the  man  who 
lays  no  claims  to  its  ministry  of 
comfort  and  hope. 

A  missionary  in  Shantung  tells 
of  traveling  one  bitter  cold  after- 
noon in  the  late  hour  when  Chinese 
do  not  like  to  be  abroad  if  they  can 
help  it.    Amid  the  shadows  a  wail 
was  heard  beside  the  road.    Inves- 
tigation showed  a  Chinese  mother 
prostrate   on   the   ground,    so 
possessed  by  her  grief  as  to  be 
oblivious    to    passers-by.      To 
escape  observation  she  had  left 
the  beaten  path,  and  there  be- 
side   her  on  the  ground  was  the 
dead  body  of  her  child,  frozen 
stiff.    The  child  had  died  in  the 
house  where  she  lived,  and,  ac- 
cording to  Shantung  custom, 
because  the  baby  was  not  yet 
old  enough  to  be  counted  a 
human  being  it  was  not  to  be 
buried,  but  taken  away  some- 
where,   anywhere   outside   the 
village,  and  left  for  the  dogs. 
Here  she  had  brought  it,  and    ^  ^^,^  ^^,  ^^^^„ 
how  could  she  leave  it?    Half-      beside  the  road 
frozen  herself,  she  cursed  the  demons  of  the  earth 


44  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

and  air  while  she  still  caressed  the  cold  form. 

It  is  all  a  part  of  the  theory  that  children  who 
die  young  are  not  real  human  babies,  but  demons 
of  some  sort  who  come  in  the  form  of  children  to 
make  trouble  and  expense  for  the  parents.  Is  it 
any  wonder  that  such  people  live  all  their  lifetime 
subject  to  the  bondage  and  fear  of  death? 

What  becomes  of  these  babies  who  die  young? 
Well,  thanks  to  the  missionary  and  his  message, 
that  matter  is  changing  rapidly.  The  old  baby 
towers  are  still  in  occasional  use,  but  there  are 
plenty  of  Chinese  who  have  never  known  a  baby 
to  be  left  there  alive.  The  dead  babies  are  some- 
times wrapped  in  grass  or  matting  and  taken  out 
to  be  left  there  for  the  dogs.  I  never  realized  the 
sinister  import  of  the  expression,  "Without  are 
dogs,"  until  I  found  this  Chinese  custom,  now 
giving  way  to  more  Christian  methods  of  caring 
for  the  dead.  I  had  hard  work  to  get  a  picture  of 
these  places;  there  was  always  some  reason  why 
we  could  "not  go  to-day,"  and  when  an  obliging 
missionary  took  a  photograph  for  me,  the  Chinese 
photographer  who  developed  the  films  destroyed 
the  negative.    He  was  ashamed  of  it. 

The  terror  of  death  in  China  is  the  settled 
horror  of  a  life  that  faces  nothing  beyond  the 
grave,  unless  it  be  the  torments  of  a  Buddhist  hell. 
It  is  the  despair  of  a  thinking  that  has  never 
known  the  triumphant  formula,  "I  am  the  resur- 
rection and  the  life." 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  GOSPEL  OF  HEALTH 

The  Medical  Missionary — Painless  Dentistry — 
Shocking  Stories — Guaranteed  Cures — Filthy 
Houses — Chinese  Lepers — Strenuous  Medical 
Practice — ^A  Chinese  Woman  Physician — Prayer 
and  Surgery — An  Impromptu  Operating  Room — 
Shot  **Forty-two  Days  Ago" — Dispensary  Every 
Morning — An  All-Around  Man — Medical  Mis- 
sionaries' Holidays. 

The  Medical  Missionary 

Are  medical  missionaries  really  needed  in 
China?  Put  it  this  way:  Are  physicians  needed 
in  China?  If  so,  then  missionary  doctors  are  in- 
evitable, for  down  to  the  present  time  there  are 
practically  no  other  doctors  of  modern  training 
in  this  whole  land  of  four  hundred  millions  of 
people. 

What  kind  of  men  go  out  as  medical  mission- 
aries? Can  a  graduate  of  a  third-grade  school 
with  moderate  ability  and  a  love  of  leisure  avoid 
the  hard  grind  and  keen  competition  of  home 
practice  and,  without  the  need  of  constant  study 
and  diligent  reading,  reign  as  a  miracle-worker  in 
a  land  where  he  will  be  a  wonder  because  every- 
body else  is  incompetent  and  helpless? 

45 


46 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


Take  the  following  for  an  answer.     It  is  the 
testimony  of  a  man  of  keen  mind,  warm  heart, 
and  a  personality  that  would  win  any- 
where.   He  has  the  marks  of  efficiency 
in  his  face  and  his  step.     He  has  the 
smile  that  makes  his  patients 
feel  better  as  soon  as  he  comes. 
Here  is  his  answer : 

"I  thought  I  had  made  a 
pretty  thorough  prepar- 
ation for  this  field.  I  had 
a  literary  degree  from  one 
of  the  largest  American 
universities  and  a  four 
years'  medical  course  in  a 
first-grade  school.  I  spent 
two  years  as  interne  in  a  big 
hospital  and  one  year  in  Lon- 
don specializing  in  Oriental 
diseases.  I  thought  that  it 
would  be  rather  plain  sailing 
out  here;  but  do  you  know 
that  it  has  kept  me  on  the  qui 
Vive  to  keep  up  with  these 
medical  missionaries  who  came  be- 
fore me  and  have  been  accumulat- 
AN  EXAMINATION  j^g  expcrieuce  while  I  was  in 
school?  These  fellows  out  here  could  qualify  at 
home  as  high  specialists  in  their  lines  and  repre- 
sent about  the  last  word  on  their  subjects.    Some 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  HEALTH       47 

of  them  have  made  valuable  contributions  to  med- 
ical science,  and  they  have  had  me  hustling  ever 
since  I  arrived." 

The  candidate  for  distinguished  leisure  had 
better  look  elsewhere. 

"They  have  their  own  doctors  in  China  and  do 
not  need  oiirs." 

Yes,  they  do  have  their  own  doctors  and  their 
own  system  of  medicine,  and  it  is  worthy  of  a  few 
pages.    Let  us  look  at  some  of  the  native  work. 

There  is  a  municipal  clinic  conducted  by  a  big 
city  in  central  China  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor. 
A  medical  missionary  with  sympathetic  intent 
visited  this  institution,  and  here  is  what  he  found : 

Seven  doctors  were  employed  in  this  worthy 
effort  to  help  the  helpless.  Three  of  the  seven 
were  "inside"  doctors,  three  were  "outside" 
doctors,  and  one  was  an  apopuncture  specialist. 
External  and  internal  medicine  are  sharply 
divided  in  many  parts  of  China.  A  man  with  an 
arrow  through  his  arm  is  sent  to  the  outside 
doctor,  who  neatly  clips  the  arrow  on  each  side 
of  the  arm  and  then  sends  the  sufferer  to  the  inside 
doctor,  who  must  finish  the  case. 

Prescriptions  are  decidedly  ultra-allopathic  so 
far  as  quantity  goes.  Vast  packages  of  roots, 
herbs,  weeds,  bugs,  insects,  and  various  ingredi- 
ents included  for  their  occult  values  are  boiled 
together  and  the  resultant  stew  taken  according 
to  directions. 


48  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

The  apopuncture  specialist  had  an  equipment 
of  some  dozen  german-silver  needles  and  the 
always-essential  chart  covered  with  the  black  dots 
where  a  hat  pin  may  be  run  into  a  man  without 
killing  him.  This  chart  is  largely  for  advertising 
purposes,  the  specialist  being  able  to  follow  his 
own  knowledge  of  anatomy  most  of  the  time. 

Several  patients  were  waiting  for  treatment, 
among  them  an  old  man  with  sore  eyes. 

"What  can  you  do  with  a  case  like  thatf  in- 
quired the  missionary. 

"That  is  not  a  difficult  case,"  the  specialist  de- 
clared.   "Let  me  show  you  how  to  treat  it." 

Whereupon  the  Chinese  practitioner  felt 
around  the  man's  right  eye  until  he  found  a  spot 
somewhere  over  near  the  nose.  Then  with  a  quick 
jab  he  inserted  the  needle  a  half  inch  or  more. 
The  helpless  coolie  gave  a  very  perceptible  start, 
but  uttered  no  sound.  A  moment  later  the  left 
eye  also  had  its  treatment,  and  the  victim  sat  there 
upon  his  stool  with  a  knitting  needle  sticking 
straight  out  of  each  eye,  doubtless  trying  to  ease 
his  torture  by  the  process  of  persuading  himself 
that  it  must  be  doing  much  good  or  it  would  not 
hurt  so  much. 

Painless  Dentistry 

China  has  dentists  of  her  own,  and  they  are  not 
so  different  from  the  jaw-breakers  of  a  century 
ago  who  twisted  the  teeth  out  of  the  mouths  of 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  HEALTH       49 

our    unfortunate    grandparents    with    the    old- 
fashioned  turnkeys. 

There  is  progressive  dentistry,  however,  in 
China,  and  down  in  Foochow  "painless  extrac- 
tion" is  advertised  and  practiced.  The  method 
is  complicated  but  ingenious:  Administer  large 
doses  of  calomel,  until  the  patient  is  thoroughly 
salivated.  Then  pick  out  his  teeth  at  random 
until  the  right  one  is  secured.  And  the  process 
works  so  well  that  one  medical  missionary  has 
found  several  cases  of  incurable  necrosis  of  the 
jaw  bone  caused  by  such  "dentistry." 

Shocking  Stokies 

She  was  a  graduate  nurse  missionary  in  charge 
of  a  big  hospital.  Standing  in  the  corridor  of  the 
new  building  dedicated  to  the  relief  of  suffering 
humanity  she  said: 

"The  folks  at  home  sometimes  do  not  want  to 
know  what  we  are  doing  here.  When  I  was  in 
the  States  on  my  last  furlough  I  was  asked  to 
speak  before  a  gathering  of  very  nice-looking 
ladies.  When  I  arose  I  asked,  *What  do  you 
want  me  to  talk  about  V 

"  *Tell  us  about  your  work,'  they  said. 

"So  I  told  them  about  my  work,  but  I  did  not 
tell  them  the  worst  of  it  by  any  means.  I  did  tell 
them  of  some  of  the  cases  that  we  get  in  here,  and 
I  tried  to  be  fair  to  the  whole  situation.  When 
I  had  finished  my  speech  a  richly  dressed  lady 


50 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


arose  and  said:  'Well,  if  this  is  what  I  am  to 
listen  to  at  missionary  meetings,  I 
shall  remain  at  home  in  the  future. 
I  was  told  that  it  would  be  an  inter- 
esting address  to-day  and  it  has 
been  one  horrible  story  after  an- 
other.'   With  this  deliverance,  the 
shocked  hearer  started  for  the 
door  and   some   of   the   other 
women     were     nodding    their 
heads  in  approval." 

"What  did  you  do?"  I  asked 
that  energetic  nurse. 

"What  did  I  do?"  she  re- 
peated with  a  snap  in  her  eyes. 
"What  did  I  do?  I  raised  my 
voice  and  said:  'Just  wait  a 
minute,  please.  You  people 
asked  me  to  come  here  and 
speak.  After  I  came  you  asked 
me  to  tell  about  my  work.  I 
have  told  you  in  part,  but  I 
have  not  told  you  the  worst  of 
it  by  any  means.  It  seems  you 
do  not  enjoy  such  stories. 
Listen  to  this  then:  You  sent 
me  over  there  as  your  represen- 
tative. If  I  can  stand  it  to  stay 
there  and  do  that  work  for 
seven  years  at  a  stretch,  I  guess  you  can  stand  it 


1/ 


GOING    TO   THE 
HOSPITAL 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  HEALTH       51 


to  sit  here  in  eushioned  pews  and  hear  me  tell 
about  it  for  thirty  minutes  at  a  time.'  " 

"Good  for  you,"  I  said. 
And  she  smiled. 

Guaranteed  Cures 

Here  is  a  typical  case  from 
Dr.  Li  Bu  Ci,  at  the  Ngu 
Cheng  Women's  Hospital. 

A  ten-months-old  baby  was  , 
brought  into  the  hospital,  suf- 
fering with  convulsions.  The 
distracted  mother  demanded 
a  positive  assurance  of  certain 
cure  before  she  would  leave 
the  baby  for  treatment.  For- 
eign medicine  was  uncertain; 
it  was  best  to  be  sure  before 
taking  such  a  risk  with  the 
Chinese  doctor  who  had 
learned  so  much  in  America. 

Dr.  Li,  being  both  intelli- 
gent   and   honest,    could   not 
guarantee    a    cure,    but    did 
promise  to  do  her  very  best. 
Being  given  twenty- four  hours 
in  which  to  show  her  power,       women  patients 
she  spent  most  of  the  night  with  the  baby,  and 
when  the  mother  came  the  next  day  the  child  was 
quiet,  but  still  a  very  sick  baby.    Seeing  that  the 


52  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

baby  was  still  ill,  and  being  unable  to  secure  a 
guarantee  of  cure,  the  mother  said  that  she  knew 
of  a  Chinese  doctor  who  would  give  her  an  abso- 
lute assurance  of  cure,  and  off  to  him  she  went 
with  the  unfortunate  infant. 

To  this  native  exorciser  the  mother  came  and 
besought  him  to  drive  the  demon  from  her  baby. 
After  prompt  diagnosis  of  the  case  as  that  of 
possession  by  an  evil  spirit,  "treatment"  was  at 
once  begun  by  the  needle  process.  Sixty  times 
the  hot  point  was  driven  through  the  baby's 
tongue,  and  cure  not  immediately  following,  fire 
was  applied  to  the  hands  and  wrists  of  the  writh- 
ing child.  Ten  days  later  the  baby  died — of  tor- 
ture. The  child  was  "cured"  at  last  and  its  suf- 
ferings ended. 

"That  is  what  we  have  to  work  with  all  the 
time,"  the  little  Chinese  doctor  remarked,  simply 
and  earnestly,  and  to-day  at  Ngu  Cheng  she  is 
working  with  "that,"  even  as  her  Master  cast  out 
devils  and  healed  the  sick  of  Galilee. 

Filthy  Houses 

The  Chinese  character  for  "home"  is  sometimes 
made  up  of  one  sign  for  a  roof  combined  with 
another  sign  for  a  pig — which  is  to  say  that  a 
good  pig  is  a  very  important  factor  in  domestic 
affairs  in  China. 

There  is  more  than  that  to  say,  however,  about 
Chinese  homes.    A  Chinese  has  a  place  for  every- 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  HEALTH       53 

thing,  and  that  place  is  his  house.  Therein  he 
places,  upon  occasion,  his  pigs  and  potatoes, 
chickens  and  children,  cows  and  corn,  ducks  and 
dogs,  beans  and  bananas,  and  everything  else  in 
one  indiscriminate  jumble  and  confusion. 

Since  brooms  and  scrubbing  brushes  are  un- 
known, the  age  of  a  Chinese  house  may  be 
approximated  by  the  degree  of  dirt  that  has 
accumulated  since  it  was  first  built.  Open  upon 
the  village  street,  the  full  conglomerate  of  con- 
tents is  upon  exhibition  for  the  benefit  of  all 
passersby.  There  is  no  window  glass,  and  the 
interiors  are  dark  except  for  the  doors  and 
"heaven's  well"  in  the  roof,  midway  of  the  gables. 

If  the  reader  thinks  this  to  be  the  verdict  of  a 
prejudiced  foreigner,  listen  to  this  opinion  of  a 
native  Chinese  woman,  educated  in  an  American 
medical  school  and  trained  in  American  ideas  of 
housekeeping.  She  is  surely  competent  to  pass 
intelligent  judgment  on  the  case: 

"Chinese  houses  are  not  so  bad  in  dry  weather; 
one  can  endure  them  then.  But  I  am  often  called 
in  wet  and  rainy  weather  to  give  medical  aid  to 
women  in  these  dark  houses,  and  there  have  been 
times  when  I  have  been  compelled  to  work  a  few 
minutes  over  the  sick,  and  then  run  out  in  the 
fresh  air  to  get  my  breath,  before  going  back  for 
another  siege.  It  is  the  devil  of  dirt  that  possesses 
the  average  Chinese  home  and  brings  all  sorts  of 
ills  in  with  him." 


54 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


Chinese  Lepeks 

There  are  lepers  in  China,  uncounted  thou- 
sands of  them,  and  the  missionary  takes  them  as 
part  of  his  day's  work  without 
fear  or  surprise. 

Ask  any  seasoned  missionary 
whether  he  is  not  afraid  to  work 
among  the  "unclean,"  and  he  will 
smile.  He  is  there  to  minister, 
and  the  leprosy  of  a  human  be- 
ing never  prevents  him  from 
going  about  his  Master's  busi- 
ness. Much  has  been  made  of 
the  story  of  a  priest  who  went 
years  ago  to  the  leper  island 
of  the  Pacific.  The  story  is  all 
right,  and  the  service  was  a 
real  one.  But  there  are  hun- 
dreds of  missionaries  to-day 
who  are  working  with  lepers 
every  week  and  saying  nothing 
about  it.  These  men  never 
think  of  themselves  as  ex- 
amples of  unusual  courage. 

There  are  leper  villages  in 
many   of  the    Chinese   cities. 
LEPERS  Here  the  unfortunates  live  to- 

gether, not  with  any  idea  of  hygiene  or  isolation, 
but  for  purely  economic  reasons ;  they  can  organ- 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  HEALTH       55 

ize  their  begging  better.  The  more  hideous  the 
deformity,  the  higher  the  commercial  value  of  the 
victim.  And  every  copper  counts  in  the  struggle 
for  rice  and  fish. 

Here  in  Foochow  is  a  leper  village  of  about 
five  hundred  people.  Not  all  of  these  "citizens" 
are  lepers.  Some  of  the  more  wealthy  lepers  have 
been  able  to  buy  non-leprous  wives  from  healthy 
families,  and  not  all  of  the  children  of  these 
unions  are  lepers.  They  all  live  together,  and 
there  is  little  objection  to  the  marriage  of  a 
healthy  girl  with  a  man  who  is  a  leper,  provided 
he  has  plenty  of  money. 

For  some  reason  no  one  takes  any  interest  in 
these  unfortunates  except  the  missionary.  From 
the  Woman's  Hospital  the  chief  nurse  goes  once 
or  twice  a  month  and  conducts  a  dispensary  for 
the  relief  of  acute  ills.  A  brick  church  stands  as 
a  spiritual  lighthouse,  and  back  of  the  church  are 
living  rooms  for  the  Bible  woman  who  labors 
there.  There  are  a  Sunday  school  and  a  Chinese 
pastor  who  holds  services. 

These  lepers  have  one  peculiarity:  they  object 
to  being  photographed;  but  a  few  stolen  snaps 
yield  some  good  subjects. 

Here  is  a  typical  leper  village  situated  a  mile 
out  from  an  interior  town  of  twenty-five  thousand 
people.  Eighty  lepers  live  here,  some  of  them  in 
advanced  stages  of  the  disease.  As  we  enter  the 
village  through  the  gate  they  swarm  about  us  with 


56  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

the  Christian  salutation,  "Ping  ang,  ping  ang" 
("Peace  unto  you").  To  these  people  all  for- 
eigners are  Christians,  as  they  have  seen  prac- 
tically no  others.  Many  of  these  unfortunates 
are  devoted  worshipers  in  the  little  white  church 
within  the  wall.  We  ring  the  church  bell,  and 
they  come  hobbling  from  everywhere  and  sit 
patiently  while  we  take  their  pictures.  A  half 
dozen  frightful  specimens  pose  for  us,  while  we 
record  their  features,  or  absence  of  features,  and 
when  we  start  on  our  way  they  exclaim,  "Walk 
slowly,  walk  slowly."  It  is  the  pohte  "Don't 
hurry  away"  of  the  Chinese. 

"Really,  are  you  never  afraid  of  them?"  I  ask 
the  missionary  as  we  go  our  way. 

"O  no,  it's  part  of  the  job,"  he  remarks,  and 
with  that  closes  the  case.  There  is  something 
further  on  that  he  wants  to  show  me. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  these  particular  lepers 
have  asked  this  missionary  to  try  to  provide  them 
with  some  form  of  employment  so  that  they  can 
support  themselves  by  work  and  stop  begging  for 
a  living. 

Strenuous  Medical  Practice 

There  is  nothing  dull  about  a  medical  mission- 
ary's life  in  time  of  revolution,  nor  any  other  time 
for  that  matter.    Here  is  a  sample : 

In  an  interior  province  the  governor  caused  the 
execution   of   a  man   accused   of   crime.      The 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  HEALTH       57 


brother  of  the  victim  was  a  close  friend  of  the  city 

governor,  or  mayor  of  the  capital.    One  day  while 

this  man  was  visiting  the  mayor 

the   provincial   governor   called 

upon  the  municipal  court,  and 

the  visitor,  seeing  the  slayer  of 

his  brother,  shot  him  dead  on  the 

spot. 

Vast  confusion  followed. 
High  indignation  over  this 
outrage  stirred  the  city  gov- 
ernor to  condemn  his  friend 
to  execution  without  formal 
trial.  The  dignity  of  the 
yamen  must  be  enforced,  re- 
gardless of  personal  friend- 
ships. Soldiers  rushed  in, 
shots  were  fired,  the  assassin 
fell  to  the  groimd,  was  car- 
ried out,  the  body  covered, 
and  peace  reigned  once  more. 
The  man  was  reported  dead. 

Now  for  the  missionary.  That 
night  the  medical  missionary  in  ^-=^ 
the  city  was  sent  for  to  come  at 
once  to  the  governor's  yamen. 
He  went  as  requested,  and  after  a  long  wait  was 
told  that  the  man  he  had  come  to  see  was  now 
dead.  He  was  not  permitted  to  return,  however, 
but  was  kept  waiting  another  hour  in  an  outer 


THE   V18ITOE   .   .   . 
SHOT   HIM   DEAD 


58  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

room  where  refreshments  were  served.  Later  in 
the  evening,  other  servants  came  and  escorted  him 
to  an  inner  room,  where,  after  another  long  delay, 
he  was  approached  by  an  official  who  led  him 
through  several  other  rooms.  At  last  they 
reached  a  couch  on  which  lay  a  man  whom  the 
doctor  was  requested  to  examine.  A  small  wound 
was  found  in  his  back,  possibly  caused  by  a  weak, 
spent  bullet.  This  the  physician  dressed  and 
advised  the  official  that  it  did  not  appear  to  be 
serious,  but  would  probably  heal  shortly. 

The  next  day  a  deputation  came  to  the  hospital 
and  asked  whether,  for  a  consideration,  arrange- 
ments could  be  made  to  take  a  private  patient  for 
a  few  days.  He  must  be  kept  in  a  secluded  room 
and  must  see  no  visitors.  This  arrangement  was 
made,  and  after  dark  two  men  brought  a  barrel 
to  the  hospital,  which  when  opened  was  found  to 
contain  the  wounded  man  of  the  night  before. 
He  was  shut  up  in  the  private  room  and  kept 
quiet.  Within  a  few  days,  however,  inquiries  be- 
gan to  arrive  and  unpleasant  insinuations  were 
floating  about  the  hospital.  When  these  ques- 
tions became  too  close  and  searching  and  the 
doctor's  explanation  that  it  was  "unprofessional 
to  discuss  his  patients"  no  longer  sufficed,  the  now 
rapidly  recovering  man  was  removed  in  a  fishing 
boat  at  night  and  sent  indirectly  to  Shanghai. 
He  was  tried  in  the  International  Court  and  sent 
to  jail,  where  the  case  was  appealed. 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  HEALTH       59 

At  this  stage  of  the  story  an  uncle  of  the 
accused  man  went  to  the  jail,  bribed  the  warden, 
and  changed  places  with  the  accused.  When  the 
trial  took  place  he  proved  that  he 
was  never  in  the  city  where 
the  murder  was  committed,  had 
nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the 
case,  and  when  acquitted,  turned 
about  and  sued  the  accusers  for 
damages  inflicted  upon  him  by 
this  prosecution.  And  by  Chi- 
nese methods,  he  did  get  four 
thousand  Mexican  dollars  to 
salve  his  wounded  feelings.  The 
real  culprit  was  never  heard  from 
again. 

Who  says  that  a  missionary 
has  no  adventures? 

A  Chinese  Woman  Physician 

There  are  a  few  Chinese  wo- 
men, educated  in  Western  medi- 
cine, perhaps   one  physician  to 
forty    or    fifty    million    people. 
That    were    surely    a    sufficient    the  womak  her- 
constituency  for  building  up  a    ^^^^  ^^  impressive 
practice.    Here  is  one  of  these  rare  women :    She 
manages  a  dispensary  and  small  hospital  in  a  big 
city.  This  woman  herself  is  impressive.  She  is  re- 
fined, cultured,  intelligent,  and  motherly  of  bear- 


^ 


60 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


ing.  Sympathetically  and  cordially  she  greets  the 
visitor,  and  her  manner  is  that  of 
a  queen  of  her  own  kingdom. 
Her   English   is   excellent,    her 
Chinese    faultless    (so    I    am 
told),  and  she  has  built  up  a 
big  practice  among  the  women 
of  Chinese  homes  who  cannot 
or  will  not  come  to  the  hospital 
dispensary.    In  the  nobility  of 
her     expressive     countenance 
speaks  the  undeveloped  power 
of  Chinese  womanhood  wait- 
ing for  its  chance  to  be  heard 
and  felt  in  Chinese  life.  When 
'     once  the  women  of  China  are 
unbound  of  foot  and  mind  and 
heart,  they  will  be  heard  and  felt 
in  China  for  the  vast  good  of  the 
people. 

Prayer  and  Surgery 

What  has  prayer  to  do  with  suc- 
cessful surgery?  Ask  a  missionary 
doctor  who  works  from  two  to  four 
hours  a  day  in  his  operating  room 
and  with  scanty  equipment  and 
shows  an  astonishingly  high  per 
cent  of  successful  cases.  It  is  a  matter  of  prin- 
ciple and  practice  with  the  surgeon  to  drop  on  his 


THE    PEAYER 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  HEALTH       61 

knees  and  offer  a  prayer  before  every  operation. 
With  almost  cloeklike  regularity  he  has  been 
known,  in  revolution  times,  to  work  on  hour  after 
hour,  cool  of  head,  steady  of  nerve.  One  opera- 
tion finished,  the  next  patient  is  brought  in  and 
the  doctor  drops  on  his  knees  a  moment  for  an 
audible  petition  for  wisdom  and  help  from  on 
high,  and  then  goes  on  with  his  work. 

For  some  reason  the  prayer  seems  in  no  way  to 
interfere  with  the  recovery  of  the  patient,  a 
matter  which  the  Chinese  are  not  slow  to  perceive. 
The  records  of  his  hospital  show  remarkably  high 
averages  in  difficult  cases.  Does  the  prayer  affect 
the  vitality  of  the  patient,  the  nerve  and  judg- 
ment of  the  doctor,  or  does  it  "release"  forces  of 
spiritual  life  which  work  for  the  healing  of  the 
body?  Or  does  the  God  who  noteth  every  spar- 
row's fall,  just  simply  hear  the  humble  and  earn- 
est petition  and  grant  help  in  time  of  need?  Who 
shall  say?  Perhaps  all  these  are  right.  But  this 
much  is  clear,  that  none  but  praying  doctors  are 
ready  to  go  to  the  relief  of  that  vast  volume  of 
untold  misery  that  tortures  one  fourth  of  the 
human  race.  An  operation  and  a  prayer,  a 
prayer  and  an  operation,  faith  and  works,  peti- 
tion and  practice — in  such  manner  the  Kingdom 
comes  to  suffering  humanity. 

An  Impromptu  Operating  Room 
"I  am  not  specializing  in  surgery  just  now," 


62  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

she  said  in  her  carefully  phrased,  foreign-learned 
English. 

We  stood  in  the  "operating  room"  of  her  wo- 
men's hospital,  the  only  hospital  of  any  sort 
within  one  hundred  and  twenty  li,  and  when  I 
looked  about  the  room  I  marveled  that  she  used 
the  term  "surgery"  at  all.  The  architect  had 
planned  the  room  correctly  enough — position, 
light,  and  ventilation — but  the  total  equipment 
was  something  like  this. 

1  wooden  table  in  the  middle  of  the  room. 

1  washboiler  (used  as  sterilizer). 

1  small  old  board  table  in  corner. 

1  cupboard,  containing  one  cross-cut  saw,  one 
carving  knife  and  several  small  devices  unnamable 
by  the  uninitiated. 

It  would  have  been  funny  had  it  not  been  so 
pathetic. 

"O  yes,"  she  went  on  in  her  charming  way,  "we 
do  a  lot  of  simple  surgery  here,  and  can  handle 
all  sorts  of  minor  cases,  but  a  capital  operation — 
ah!"  and  she  spread  her  hands  with  a  comical 
gesture  that  expressed  more  than  words. 

There  she  stood,  one  hundred  and  twenty 
pounds  of  trained  Chinese  womanhood,  educated 
in  arts  and  literature,  trained  in  medicine  and 
surgery  surrounded  by  the  board  table  and  wash- 
boiler  outfit — but  she  was  not  specializing  in 
surgery  just  then!  I  should  say  not!  But  she 
was  a  specialist  in  using  makeshifts. 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  HEALTH       63 

"This  is  our  clinical  room,"  she  proceeded.  "It 
is  early  yet ;  soon  they  will  come  fast." 

A  dozen  people  in  various  stages  of  dirt,  dis- 
tress, and  dilapidation  sat  about  the  room  wait- 
ing for  the  troubling  of  the  healing  waters  by  this 
efficient  little  Chinese  angel  of  ministration. 

She  walked  up  to  a  ragged  coolie  seated  on  a 
stool  and  looking  as  if  he  had  not  a  friend  in  the 
world.  Pulling  up  his  eyelid,  she  remarked, 
"This  is  what  we  have  so  much  of  here."  What 
"this"  might  be  I  had  not  the  slightest  idea,  hence 
I  ventured  a  question. 

"What  do  you  do  for  that?" 

She  told  me — in  technical  terms — and  I  shall 
betray  no  professional  secrets  by  repeating  it 
here. 

As  might  be  supposed,  in  this  land  of  large 
families  the  maternity  ward  did  a  thriving  busi- 
ness. Social  standing  is  measured  by  the  size  of 
one's  family,  and  native  midwifery  is  of  the  crud- 
est sort.  Any  unusual  complication  means  death 
by  torture,  and  after  that  the  pool  of  green  filth 
for  the  unfortunate  mother  who  has  failed  in  her 
supreme  duty — but  that  is  another  story. 

Do  these  people  appreciate  the  work  of  the  hos- 
pital? If  they  do  not,  they  certainly  act  very 
strangely,  for  they  come  from  near  and  far — 
thirty,  forty  and  fifty  per  day — and  they  send 
from  far  and  near  for  that  little  doctor  to  come 
to  those  who  cannot  reach  the  hospital.    When  a 


64  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

Chinese  is  too  ill  to  bring  to  the  doctor  he  is  usu- 
ally as  good  as  dead. 

How  much  help  does  the  little  doctor  employ 
to  care  for  these  hundred  dispensary  patients  and 
the  wards  full  of  in-patients?  No  help  at  all  ex- 
cept that  which  she  has  trained  herself  while  at 
work.  There  are  a  half  dozen  Chinese  women 
whom  she  has  taught  to  mix  drugs,  apply  band- 
ages, dress  ulcers,  boil  water,  apply  local  an- 
gesthetics,  and  generally  do  what  they  are  told  to 
do.  There  is  no  trained  nurse  nor  medical  stu- 
dent within  forty  English  miles. 

The  missionary  told  me  a  joke  the  next  day — 
it  was  on  the  noted  foreign  doctor,  for  whom  he 
had  sent  to  administer  to  the  child  an  antitoxin 
for  which  the  little  Chinese  doctor  had  no  ingredi- 
ents. He  came  the  long  journey,  and  made  ready 
the  treatment  while  talking  sociably  with  the  little 
black-eyed  Chinese  doctor,  who  watched  his  every 
move.  Carefully  the  specialist  sterilized  his 
needle,  and  then,  absent-mindedly,  in  the  midst  of 
a  story,  drew  forth  his  handkerchief  and  wiping 
the  needle,  laid  it  on  the  board  table  before  the 
astonished  little  woman.  "What  do  you  think  of 
that?"  she  gasped  under  her  breath. 

Shot  "Forty-Two  Days  Ago^^ 

We  were  going  through  the  wards  of  the  Yeng 
Ping  Hospital.  The  doctor  had  been  away  at 
Conference  for  a  week,  and  there  were  faces  old 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  HEALTH       65 


and  new  to  greet  him.  Some  of  the  welcomes 
received  were  good  to  see.  In  one  of 
the  men's  wards  on  a  plain  cot  lay 
a  man  with  a  pain-drawn  face 
and  a  left  leg  swollen  to  three 
times  its  normal  size.  He 
was  too  weak  to  give  a  clear 
account  of  his  condition,  but 
the  always-present  relative 
explained  that  this  man  had 
been  working  in  the  moun- 
tains, where  "forty-two  days 
ago"  he  had  been  shot  by  a 
bandit.  Since  that  time  he 
had  received  no  care  other 
than  an  occasional  supply  of 
rice  and  water.  He  had  been 
left  to  die  or  get  well,  and 
since  he  had  done  neither 
within  a  reasonable  time,  he 
had  been  brought  to  the 
hospital  as  a  puzzle  for  the 
foreign  doctor. 

After  a  brief  examination  the 
doctor  murmured,  "Poor  fellow,  he  is 
in  a  frightful  condition." 

Not  being  a  medical  man,  I  felt  shot  -forty- 
competent  to  express  a  lay  opinion.'^'^o  ^^^s  ago'' 
I  took  a  good  look  at  the  sufferer  and  remarked, 
"Doctor,  that  man  is  going  to  die." 


66  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

"No,"  he  assured  me.  "He  is  a  Chinese,  and  a 
Chinaman  never  is  dead  until  he  stops  breathing." 

As  we  walked  up  the  hill  to  the  compound  the 
doctor  meditated  aloud  concerning  this  case.  "It 
may  be  best,"  he  considered,  "to  amputate  that 
leg." 

"But,  Doctor  Skinner,"  I  objected,  "that  man 
is  going  to  die." 

"No,"  asserted  the  doctor.  "He  is  a  Chinaman, 
and  you  can't  tell  about  it." 

The  next  morning  I  walked  into  the  operating 
room,  camera  in  hand.  The  unfortunate  victim 
of  the  robber's  bullet  was  on  the  table,  anaesthetic 
administered,  while  the  near-of-kin,  Chinese  style, 
stood  hard  by  to  represent  the  family. 

"What  are  you  going  to  do?"  I  asked. 

"Well,  if  he  were  not  a  Chinese,  I  would  not  do 
anything  but  make  him  comfortable  till  the  end. 
Chinese  though  he  be,  I  am  afraid  to  take  off 
that  leg.    I  am  going  to  clean  out  that  wound." 

While  the  doctor  worked  I  took  a  picture,  and 
then  he  filled  a  small  pan  with  handf uls  of  splint- 
ered bone  dug  from  that  bullet  hole  enlarged  for 
the  purpose. 

I  watched  the  process,  and  as  I  gazed  the  fire 
burned  and  I  opened  my  mouth  and  spoke. 

"Doctor,  that  man  is  going  to  die." 

"Doubtless  he  will,  some  day,"  he  remarked, 
cheerfully.  "Still,  you  never  can  tell;  he  is  a 
Chinaman." 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  HEALTH       67 


Did  he  die?  He  did  not,  for  he  was  a 
Chinese,  and  I  am  now  convinced  that  he 
owes  his  hfe  to  the  skill  and 
faith  of  one  missionary  sur- 
geon. 

Dispensary  Every 
Morning 

Did  you  ever  visit  a  mis- 
sionary hospital  during  dis- 
pensary hours?  One  fore- 
noon so  spent  saves  months 
of  argument,  volumes  of  sta- 
tistics, and  tons  of  persuasion 
on  the  subject  of  medical 
missions. 

Are  you  ready?  My  first 
visit  to  a  clinic  was  a  surprise 
and  withal  a  shock,  and  I 
came  out  of  the  ordeal  a 
little  unsteady  in  nerve.  If 
you  are  not  feeling  very  well 
to-day,  put  off  this  trip  till 
to-morrow.  But  if  you  are 
ready,  we  will  proceed.  Here 
we  are! 

On    top    of    a    beautiful  ^^^^"^  coppers  required 
wooded  hill  by  the  Yangtse 
River  stands  a  large  brick  building  with  its  clean 
wards,  cool  corridors,  and  well-equipped  operat- 
ing room.    Leave  that  for  the  present. 


:z" 


68  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

Down  here  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  stands  a  gal- 
vanized iron  house  originally  built  by  the  govern- 
ment for  military  purposes  and  afterward  turned 
over  to  the  hospital  for  clinical  use.  At  this  early 
hour  the  little  waiting  room  is  already  crowded 
with  an  aggregation  of  lame,  halt,  and  blind  hu- 
manity seeking  physical  relief.  They  look  on 
helplessly  while  being  photographed.  There  is 
no  resistance  in  them. 

Here  come  the  doctor  and  two  or  three  Chinese 
assistants.  One  of  these  helpers  takes  his  place 
in  the  waiting  room  by  the  door  leading  into  the 
doctor's  office  and  collects  the  eight  coppers 
required  as  a  fee.  That  is  to  say,  he  collects  it 
provided  the  patient  has  or  can  get  it ;  otherwise 
the  indigent  get  in  just  the  same.  In  no  case  can 
he  enter,  however,  without  the  little  bamboo  stick, 
a  red  one  if  a  new  patient,  white  if  a  repeater. 
Eight  coppers  represent  something  like  three 
cents  in  coin  of  the  United  States,  and  be  it  said  to 
the  credit  of  this  bedraggled  remnant  of  humanity 
that  nearly  all  of  them  manage  to  get  together 
the  cash  for  each  visit.  That  eight  coppers  is  as 
much  for  them  as  two  or  three  dollars  for  an 
American  mechanic. 

Here  sits  our  medical  man,  coat  off,  sleeves 
rolled  up,  behind  his  little  table  with  his  big 
record  book.  He  is  quite  worth  a  moment  of  our 
time,  is  this  fellow  there.  Clean-cut,  vigorous, 
and  alert,  he  represents  the  best  that  a  great 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  HEALTH       69 


American  university,  a  first-grade  medical  school, 
two  years'  hospital  practice,  and 
a  year  in  London  can  do  for  a  man 
who  has  heart  and  brain  enough  to 
take  away  with  him  what  the 
schools  have  to  give  to  him  as 
he  goes  through.    He  is  good 
to  look  upon,  and  the  sym- 
pathetic touch  of  his  life  has  a 
therapeutic   value   not   to   be 
lightly  regarded. 

But  here  comes  Number 
One  patient,  and  we  will  have 
to  drop  the  doctor  and  attend 
to  business.  This  is  a  second- 
visit  patient  who  came  last 
week  with  malaria  and  needs 
more  quinine.  It  takes  less 
than  half  a  minute,  record  in 
hand,  to  ascertain  these  facts, 
and  Number  One  proceeds 
into  the  dispensary  with  a  slip 
from  the  doctor  which,  when  pre- 
sented to  the  dispenser,  gets  him 
what  is  needed. 

Number  Two,  also  a  former 
patient,  needs  a  change  of  treat- 
ment and  requires  something  like  two  minutes 
to  get  at  certain  facts  in  his  case.  Number  Three, 
a  first-time  patient,  lifts  a  bare  and  dirty  leg,  on 


XUMBER   SIX   IS   A 

WOMAX    WITH 

A    BABY    IK 

HER    ARMS 


70 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


rpn 


the  shank  of  which  is  an  ulcer  four  inches  across, 
filled  with  pus.  The  flesh  about  the  red  swelling 
has  been  burned  and  blistered  by  traditional 
Chinese  treatment  until  it  re- 
sembles nothing  that  is  human. 
Our  doctor  gives  one  glance  at 
the  leg,  hands  out  a  ticket  with 
a  number  on  it,  and  turns  to 
the  next  patient  without  a 
word.  Leg  ulcers  in  China  are 
as  common  as  dirty  babies,  and 
every  doctor  knows  them  by 
heart.  Number  Four  reports 
various  vague  symptoms, 
arouses  the  doctor's  suspicions, 
and  after  a  few  short  and 
pointed  questions,  confesses  to 
immoral  living  as  the  cause  of 
his  complaint,  and  goes  on  into 
the  next  room  to  get  his  medi- 
cine. Number  Five  is  a  ten- 
year-old  boy,  red-eyed  and 
doubled  up  in  agony,  who 
stumbles  in  and  rolls  on  the 
floor  in  torment.  The  doctor 
leaves  his  chair,  makes  a  swift  but  careful  exam- 
ination, and  mutters,  "Stone  in  the  bladder." 
Then,  suddenly  remembering  his  visitor,  he  asks, 
"Do  you  want  to  see  an  operation  this  after- 
noon?" 


KUMBER  SEVEK 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  HEALTH       71 


Number  Six  is  a  woman  with  a  baby  in  her 
arms,  and  the  baby  is  covered 
from  head  to  foot  with  ulcers, 
a  sight  to  make  one  shudder. 
"That's  nothing,"  remarks 
the  medical  man,  "we  get 
them  much  worse  than  that. 
They  can  be  cured  by  care- 
ful attention.  The  hardest 
job  we  have  is  to  keep  these 
people  clean." 

Number  Seven,  a  coolie, 
has  a  loathsome  and  hide- 
ous case  of  venereal  disease. 
Number  Eight  has  bad  eyes. 
Number  Nine  has  a  rupture 
and  requires  an  operation. 
Number  Ten  has  two  bad 
ulcers,  one  on  an  arm  and  one 
on  a  leg. 

"Half  of  our  work  falls 
under  three  heads,"  remarks 
the  doctor,  "bad  eyes,  leg 
ulcers,  and  venereal  diseases." 

Number  Eleven  appears — 
a  woman  with  a  baby  in  arms. 
I  take  one  instant's  look  at 
the  poor,  miserable  little  thing  and  involuntarily 
turn  away  with  a  shudder.  "Horrors,  what  is 
that?" 


REPULSIVE   AND  DIFFICULT 
WORK 


72  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

"That?  Why,  that's  gangrene,"  remarks  the 
doctor,  casually.  The  baby's  mouth  is  one  ulcer- 
ated horror,  and  the  mother  goes  her  way  into  the 
dispensary  to  wait  till  the  doctor  can  himself 
attend  to  the  case. 

"But,  Doctor,  what  are  you  going  to  do  with 
that  baby?" 

"O,  I'll  cauterize  the  mouth  and  then  cure  it 
up." 

"But  won't  the  baby  die?" 

"O  yes,  some  time,  I  suppose;  but  we  handle 
those  cases  pretty  well  here.  It  will  die  of  some- 
thing else  besides  that  mouth." 

On  they  come,  till  Number  Fifty-eight  makes 
the  last  entry,  and  the  doctor  makes  his  way  into 
the  dispensary  to  give  personal  attention  to  the 
cases  that  were  too  bad  for  his  assistants  to  handle. 
The  simple  cases  have  gone  their  way  long  ago, 
but  the  gangrenous  baby,  the  repulsive  prodigal, 
the  surgical  cases,  all  the  repulsive  and  difficult 
work  he  must  do  with  his  own  hands.  And  the 
man  who  could  not  raise  the  eight  coppers  got  the 
same  skillful  treatment  as  though  he  had  brought 
ten  talents  of  silver  and  twenty  changes  of  rai- 
ment. 

This  is  one  morning's  work.  Six  days  in  the 
week  he  sits  there  working  with  this  ragged,  mis- 
erable trail  of  humanity,  pouring  out  the  best 
skill  and  training  of  the  twentieth  century  into 
these  offscourings  of  wretchedness  and  suffer- 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  HEALTH       73 

ing.  There  is  something  about  it  that  stirs  a 
man's  blood  and  makes  a  lump  rise  in  his  throat. 
I  went  out  into  the  fresh  air  and  looked  up  at  the 
blue  sky  and  thought  of  Him  who  had  compas- 
sion on  the  multitude  and  healed  them. 

And  what  does  he  get  for  it  all,  the  best  pro- 
duct of  the  last  word  in  medical  science?  What 
does  he  get?  He  gets  one  thousand  dollars  per 
year  for  himself  and  his  family.  The  big  Meth- 
odist Church  sends  him  out  there  and  pays  him 
that  "salary"  to  do  the  work  that  Jesus  Christ 
left  to  us  to  finish. 

An  All- Around  Man 

What  makes  a  good  missionary?  Put  it  this 
way:  What  makes  a  man  able  to  meet  all  the 
problems  and  perplexities  of  life,  multiplied  by 
differences  in  race  and  language? 

A  certain  missionary,  weary  and  worn,  came 
one  night  to  the  home  of  a  brother  missionary,  a 
medical  man,  as  it  happened.  The  traveler  was 
sick,  and  the  doctor,  of  course,  gave  him  medicine 
for  his  healing.  His  hair  was  overlong  from 
weeks  upon  the  road,  and  the  doctor  turned 
barber  with  satisfactory  results.  The  traveler's 
watch  was  broken,  and  the  doctor  repaired  it. 
The  lock  on  his  chest  was  out  of  order,  and  that 
was  soon  mended.  His  glasses  were  out  of  their 
frames,  but  these  were  soon  in  good  repair.  An 
aching  tooth  was  filled,  and  when  the  pilgrim  went 


74  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

his  way  he  left  the  doctor  making  a  wooden  leg 
for  a  Chinese  whose  limb  he  had  amputated  three 
months  before. 

The  list  of  achievements  of  that  particular  mis- 
sionary was  by  no  means  exhausted.  His  com- 
pound contains  trees  which  bear  fruits,  the  like  of 
which  were  never  seen  nor  tasted  in  that  part  of 
the  world  until  their  seeds  were  planted,  or  buds 
were  imported  and  grown  on  native  roots.  Cali- 
fornia lemons  flourish  on  Chinese  roots  in  Chinese 
soil  and  are  eagerly  sought  after  by  foreigners 
miles  away.  Navel  oranges,  deciduous  fruits  and 
berries  all  combine  to  transplant  the  homeland 
into  that  Chinese  acre.  And  this  is  but  the  begin- 
ning of  what  is  planned. 

The  only  telephone  in  the  town,  or  within  five 
hundred  miles  for  that  matter,  circuits  the  three 
missionary  homes  and  the  hospital  across  the 
ravine.  From  a  fine  spring  back  in  the  hills  is 
piped  the  only  running  water  in  any  house  within 
hundreds  of  miles.  So  pure  is  this  water  that  it 
may  be  used  "raw"  for  drinking.  The  mission- 
ary-built church  in  this  town  is  the  best  lighted 
and  ventilated  building  in  the  place.  The  mis- 
sionaries' homes  set  an  example  of  domestic 
cleanness  and  comfort.  Three  missionary  schools 
furnish  the  only  education  in  the  town  worth  the 
name.  Friendly  relations  are  maintained  with 
Chinese  officials  who  look  upon  these  foreigners 
as  a  benefit  to  the  place.     One  hundred  and 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  HEALTH       75 

twenty-five  miles  inland,  this  city  escapes  treaty- 
port  demoralizations,  and  every  man  in  the  place 
knows  and  respects  the  six  missionaries  who  con- 
stitute the  entire  foreign  population  within  forty 
miles  of  the  town.  It  is  such  conditions  as  this 
that  cause  the  native  to  substitute  the  euphemism 
"foreign  child"  for  the  stronger  term,  "foreign 
devil." 

What  do  the  natives  think  of  this  transplanting 
of  the  twentieth  century  into  the  changeless  super- 
stition and  dirt  of  the  Oriental  city  by  the  river? 
Some  may  think  one  thing  and  some  another,  but 
this  item  may  be  significant ;  The  Chinese  ruler 
of  that  city  himself  imbibed  foreign  and  progres- 
sive ideas,  and  he  has  just  ordered  that  the  town 
shall  be  transformed.  Its  streets  are  to  be 
cleaned,  a  public  water  works  installed,  and, 
most  wonderful  of  all,  a  sort  of  sewer  system  is 
to  be  put  in  working  order.  He  means  business 
and  has  the  money  for  the  work,  and — this  is  the 
climax — he  has  appointed  the  medical  missionary 
to  oversee  the  entire  job  and  spend  all  the  money. 

Do  missionaries  have  any  influence  with  the 
natives  ?  Can  that  medical  man  manage  that  j ob  ? 
Yea,  verily! 

Medical  Missionaries^  Holidays 

Modern  missionaries  have  pretty  well  learned 
the  lesson  of  recreation  and  relaxation,  and  most 
of  them  take  time  enough  from  their  work  to  keep 


76  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

in  good  trim  for  the  year.  While  on  their  fields 
during  the  busy  months,  however,  it  is  difficult 
to  find  time  for  any  rest  at  all. 

Two  missionary  friends  met  one  day  and 
agreed  to  take  a  half  day  off  and  just  do  what 
they  felt  like  doing.  Whereupon  they  proceeded 
to  repair  their  mechanical  and  surgical  equip- 
ment, cut  each  other's  hair,  and  fill  each  other's 
teeth. 

Two  women  medical  missionaries  made  a 
similar  experiment  one  day  and  resolved  that  for 
the  afternoon  they  would  be  neither  missionaries, 
nor  doctors,  nor  teachers,  nor  leaders — not,  in 
fact,  anything  else  at  all  except  "just  women." 

After  due  consideration  it  was  agreed  that  the 
most  appropriate  thing  for  "just  women"  to  do 
would  be  to  sew,  and  to  this  they  addressed  them- 
selves. Sewing  seemed  like  old  times,  and  in  ten 
minutes  they  were  as  happy  as  birds  in  a  nest,  dis- 
cussing the  problems  of  dressmaking. 

Before  fifteen  minutes  had  passed,  an  emer- 
gency call  came  in,  and  both  doctors  were  needed 
to  care  for  the  unfortunate.  But  never  mind, 
accidents  will  happen  anywhere.  Back  to  the 
sewing  again. 

A  few  minutes  later  a  case  was  brought  in  re- 
quiring anaesthetics,  and  an  hour's  hard  work  in- 
tervened before  sewing  could  be  thought  of  again. 
Later  one  of  the  nurses  was  scalded,  a  baby  died, 
and  trouble  in  the  hospital  laundry  demanded 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  HEALTH       77 

immediate  adjustment.  When  the  afternoon  was 
gone,  two  weary  but  cheerful  medical  mission- 
aries gazed  ruefully  at  a  pile  of  sewing  that  had 
received  scant  attention  since  noon. 

"Being  'just  women'  is  a  failure,"  they  de- 
clared. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  MISSIONARY  AT  WORK 

The  Big  Job — ^The  "Mistakes"  of  Missionaries — 
Keeping  Up  with  a  Missionary — Camping  in 
Church — Eight  Miles  of  Abuse  Per  Day — Meals 
A  LA  Chinese — Flight  Under  Difficulties — 
Breaking  Up  an  Opium  Joint — Missionary  Tiger- 
Hunting, 

The  Big  Job 

Perhaps  the  most  impressive  thing  about  mis- 
sionary work  in  China  is  the  vastness  of  the  job 
and  the  solid  strength  of  the  forces  that  are  work- 
ing at  it.  China  is  an  enormous  conjurer's  bag, 
out  of  which  may  be  taken  the  most  varied  and 
astonishing  assortment  of  things  of  human  inter- 
est that  the  eyes  of  men  have  yet  beheld.  There 
seems  to  be  no  bottom  to  the  bag  nor  no  end  to 
the  assortment. 

A  mere  dictionary  of  mission  forces  and  opera- 
tions in  China  makes  a  volume  too  large  to  carry 
about.  A  list  of  missionary  names  makes  up  a 
book  like  a  city  directory.  One  mission  head- 
quarters at  Shanghai,  with  its  well-kept  lawn  sur- 
rounded by  administration  buildings,  stores,  hos- 
pital, and  official  residences,  suggests  a  college 
campus. 

78 


THE  MISSIONARY  AT  WORK     79 


Here  is  a  mission  print  "shop."  The  reader 
may  think  of  a  Uttle  room 
somewhere  with  three  or  four 
natives  helping  a  hungry- 
looking  missionary  print  a 
few  tracts.  Well,  think 
again  and  think  of  a  four- 
story  building  where  over 
two  hundred  people  are  em- 
ployed in  carrying  out  every 
branch  of  the  printing  busi- 
ness under  one  interde- 
nominational management. 
American,  French,  and  Chi- 
nese type  are  cast  in  the  type 
foundry  on  the  first  floor. 
Five  cylinder  and  six  job 
presses  sing  the  clanking 
song  of  toil.  In  the  stock 
room  thirty  thousand  dollars' 
worth  of  paper  lies  wait- 
ing for  the  knife.  Up  in 
the  composing  room  there 
are  fonts  of  Chinese  type 
with  eight  thousand  separate 
characters,  all  made  in  the 
foundry  below.  In  the 
bindery  are  rows  of  Chinese 
girls  who  fold  and  stitch  and  assemble  the  book 
sheets. 


A    MISSION    PRINT   SHOP 


80 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


At  the  head  of  this  establishment,  in  his  private 
office,  sits  a  missionary,  quiet, 
competent  and  strong,  mak- 
ing a  success  of  his  job 
against  Chinese  competition, 
and  doing  it  on  a  missionary's 
salary.  Where  is  another 
"call"  that  can  induce  a  man 
of  his  caliber  to  do  that? 

Speaking  of  men,  these  fel- 
lows who  are  doing  the  big 
things  and  manage  the  large 
enterprises  out  there  are  not 
boys  nor  experimenters,  they 
are  men.  There  are  mission- 
aries who  could  run  the 
Standard  Oil  business  or 
govern  a  State  or  manage  a 
railroad.  They  administer 
big  projects  and  deal  in 
world-movements  and  bring 
success  out  of  hard  situations. 
There  are  a  few  of  them  who 
could  live  in  the  White 
House  with  credit  to  the  na- 
tion. The  secretary  of  the 
China  Education  Association 
is  a  missionary,  the  same  missionary,  by  the  way, 
who  engineered  the  fortifying  of  the  Legation 
quarters  during  the  Boxer  outbreak  in  Peking 


LETTERS   BY   THE    WAY 


THE  MISSIONARY  AT  WORK     81 

and  did  as  much  as  any  one  man  to  save  the  lives 
of  the  foreigners  in  that  besieged  city.  He  is  so 
modest  that  he  will  scold  if  he  sees  this,  but  since 
no  names  are  mentioned,  not  much  damage  is 
done. 

These  big  fellows  are  doing  their  best  in  diffi- 
cult situations,  sometimes  in  lonely  places,  and  are 
living  on  the  "support"  paid  them  by  missionary 
societies  that  have  sent  them  out  there  to  do  or  to 
die — often  to  do  both.  If  any  man  thinks  this  is 
a  play  job,  let  him  cross  the  Pacific  and  try  it  for 
himself.  But  let  him  really  see  the  men  and  taste 
their  daily  lives,  and  not  spend  a  day  on  shore 
while  the  big  liner  is  in  port,  and  use  that  one  day 
to  see  the  foreign  quarter  and  the  tenderloin.  On 
the  deck  of  a  steamer  in  Yokohama  harbor  one 
day  I  heard  a  man  say:  "Am  I  going  ashore? 
O  well,  I  suppose  so.  All  I  want  here  is  a  cane 
and  a  drink  of  whisky."  And  this  on  his  first  visit 
to  the  place  where  Perry  opened  the  gates  of  the 
sunrise.  That  is  the  kind  of  man  who  goes  home 
and  reports  that  "the  missionary  gang  is  doing 
nothing."  He  knows  because  he  has  "been  there 
and  seen"  for  himself ! 

The  "Mistakes"  of  Missionaries 

The  volume,  venom,  and  force  of  missionary 
criticism  in  the  Orient  is  something  hard  for  the 
tourist  to  understand.  On  board  the  transpacific 
liners,  in  treaty-port  hotels,  on  the  "bund"  of 


82  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

every  water  front  one  hears  of  the  laziness,  ineffi- 
ciency, dishonesty,  and  immorality  of  the  med- 
dling missionary.  The  uninitiated  traveler 
wonders  what  in  the  world  the  missionary  can 
have  done  to  incur  so  much  displeasure.  The 
smoking  rooms  of  the  big  steamers,  the  clubs 
of  the  larger  cities,  and  the  community  life  of  the 
Orient  all  bear  witness  to  the  condemnation 
which  the  missionary  has  incurred  at  the  hands  of 
the  men  who  are.in  the  East  for  revenue  only. 

Sometimes  the  missionary  "comes  back"  at 
these  railing  accusations,  but  usually  he  pays  no 
heed,  being  too  busy.  It  happened  one  evening  in 
the  lounging  room  of  a  big  steamer  that  a  man  of 
vast  size,  florid  face,  and  loud  voice  was  discours- 
ing at  great  length  on  the  general  shortcomings 
of  missionaries.  He  knew  all  about  them,  he  did, 
and  for  an  hour  he  entertained  the  company  with 
a  general  dissertation  upon  this  joke  of  all  the 
earth.  As  for  himself,  he  could  abide  none  of 
them.  He  was  a  man  of  health  and  vigor,  so  he 
said.  He  slept  well,  he  ate  well,  he  worked  well — 
in  short,  he  was  about  right,  and  no  man  could 
enjoy  life  more  than  he. 

At  this  point  a  small  and  demure  woman  arose 
and  approached  the  big  man  and  remarked  that 
she  as  a  physician  had  lived  some  years  in  the 
Orient  and  doubted  whether  the  speaker  were  in 
as  good  health  as  he  supposed.  "I  can  usually 
tell,"  she  said,  "by  a  man's  pulse  whether  Oriental 


THE  MISSIONARY  AT  WORK     83 

conditions  are  not,  in  fact,  undermining  his  health 
just  when  he  is  sure  that  all  is  well." 

The  human  porpoise  was  manifestly  interested. 
"Would  you  object  to  feeling  of  my  pulse?"  he 
asked. 

"Certainly  not,"  she  replied. 

By  this  time  everyone  was  interested,  and  for 
a  moment  there  was  perfect  silence  while  the  little 
doctor  held  the  big  man's  wrist. 

When  he  could  stand  it  no  longer,  he  asked, 
"Well,  do  you  find  anything?" 

"Yes,  I  do,"  she  said,  seriously  enough.  "Yes 
—I  do." 

"What  is  it?" 

"I  do  not  wish  to  frighten  you,  but  in  untech- 
nical  terms,  you  have  what  is  known  as  a  well- 
developed  case  of  the  American  bighead.  I  am 
one  of  those  missionaries,  you  know." 

It  seems  that  the  only  people  who  are  not  busy 
criticizing  the  missionaries  are  the  people  who 
know  something  about  them  and  their  work.  Al- 
most anyone  else  can  give  you  a  complete  list  of 
their  shortcomings.  A  little  experience  with  the 
critics  throws  a  flood  of  light  on  the  reasons  for 
their  antagonism.  When  a  man  goes  to  a  foreign 
country  solely  for  profit-at-any-price,  when  his 
own  life  is  a  constant  violation  of  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments, when  his  ideal  of  a  good  time  is  a 
debauch,  it  is  not  strange  that  the  life  and  labor 
of  the  missionary  is  a  constant  irritation.    It  is 


84  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

the  world-old  conflict  between  selfishness  and  sen- 
sualism on  one  hand  and  unselfishness  and  ideal- 
ism on  the  other. 

Here  are  some  of  the  common  criticisms,  ar- 
ranged in  pairs  to  save  need  of  comment.  I  have 
heard  them  all  at  some  time. 

1.  The  missionary  tries  to  change  the  religion 
of  the  people  who  are  well  enough  off  with  the 
religion  they  now  have. 

2.  The  missionary  compromises  his  teachings 
and  adapts  them  too  much  to  his  hearers. 

1.  The  missionary  pretends  to  give  the  heathen 
a  modern  education  with  no  equipment  worthy  of 
the  name.  He  should  do  better  school  work  or 
stop  talking  about  education. 

2.  The  missionary  wastes  money  in  building 
elaborate  schools  that  the  people  don't  want. 
There  is  no  demand  for  education  among  the 
heathen.  They  should  be  content  with  a  log  hav- 
ing a  teacher  at  one  end  and  a  boy  at  the  other. 
That  was  good  enough  for  our  fathers. 

1.  The  missionaries  live  in  wealth  and  luxury 
in  houses  far  better  than  some  of  their  church 
members,  even  better  than  some  houses  in 
America.  If  you  want  to  see  real  aristocrats,  look 
at  the  missionaries. 

2.  The  missionaries  live  in  the  poorest  houses 
of  any  foreigners  in  the  lands  in  which  they  work. 
They  should  keep  closer  to  the  standards  set  by 
foreign  business  men  who  live  in  the  only  way 


THE  MISSIONARY  AT  WORK     85 

that  makes  it  possible  to  keep  well  and  stay  on 
the  job. 

1.  The  missionary  is  so  solemn  and  prudish 
that  he  looks  like  one  continual  funeral.  He  is 
not  a  "good  mixer"  and  spreads  thoughts  of 
gloom  and  eternity  wherever  he  goes. 

2.  The  missionary  is  so  frivolous  that  he  never 
becomes  serious  enough  to  do  any  good.  He 
divides  his  time  between  tennis  and  jokes.  He 
should  take  himself  more  seriously  or  come  home. 

1.  The  missionary  abuses  the  natives.  He 
beats  his  servants,  domineers  over  his  converts, 
meddles  with  government  officials,  and  generally 
makes  trouble  wherever  he  goes. 

2.  The  missionary  is  so  easy-going  and  slack- 
twisted  that  the  natives  have  no  respect  for  him. 
Anybody  can  run  over  a  missionary. 

1.  The  missionary  is  a  man  of  evil  life  and  vile 
personal  habits.  He  spreads  wickedness  among 
the  moral  heathen  everywhere  he  goes.  It  would 
not  be  proper  to  print  the  things  that  he  does. 

2.  The  missionary  stands  so  straight  in  moral 
matters  that  he  leans  over  backward.  He  is  so 
puritanical  that  no  one  can  live  with  him. 

1.  The  missionary  has  no  business  sense.  He 
knows  nothing  of  property  values,  and  is  so  other- 
worldly and  helpless  that  anyone  can  cheat  him  at 
sight. 

2.  The  missionary  is  so  shrewd  and  unscru- 
pulous that  no  property  is  safe  in  his  hands.    He 


86  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

buys  up  the  best  land  at  bargain  prices  and  holds 
onto  it  till  kingdom  come.  Wherever  he  goes 
property  values  begin  to  rise,  and  he  secures  large 
holdings  for  his  mission.  These  compounds  in 
time  come  to  be  worth  lots  of  money. 

There  are  more  criticisms.  These  are  only 
samples.  I  learned  of  an  opium  den  operated  in 
an  episcopal  residence.  Horrors,  surely!  The 
bishop  was  away,  the  house  was  rented  to  a  tenant 
who  was  also  out  of  the  city  on  vacation,  and  the 
enterprising  coolies  set  up  and  ran  a  secret 
smokery  in  the  basement  on  their  own  account. 
But  it  was  an  opium  joint  in  the  bishop's  house, 
just  the  same.  Missionaries  employ  lots  of  serv- 
ants, terVible  to  tell.  They  employ  these  servants 
for  a  pittance  (missionaries  pay  higher  wages 
than  other  foreigners)  to  do  the  housework,  while 
they  devote  themselves  to  the  work  for  which  they 
were  sent,  but  it  is  employing  servants  just  the 
same.  There's  plenty  more  like  this,  but  why 
consume  space? 

Keeping  Up  with  a  Missionary 

Most  anybody  should  be  able  to  follow  a  mis- 
sionary for  one  day.  I  tried  it  in  a  city  of  nearly 
a  million.  My  victim  (he  came  near  being  my 
executioner)  was  missionary  in  charge  of  the 
evangelistic  work  in  that  particular  metropolis. 

We  set  out  early,  threw  our  coats  into  the  sedan 
chair,  admonished  the  bearers  to  keep  up  with  us, 


THE  MISSIONARY  AT  WORK     87 

and  soon  had  the  bridge  and  the  river  behind  us 
while  we  threaded  the  maze  of  crooked,  narrow 
streets  of  the  business  section  of  the  town.  A  new 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  building  of 
imposing  size  was  going  up  and  we  stopped  a  few 
moments  to  view  its  proportions  and  dream  of 
its  coming  usefulness. 

Our  first  mission  stop  was  at  a  little  earth- 
floored  chapel  on  a  busy  street.  A  day  school  was 
in  progress  and  a  small  platform  at  one  end  of 
the  room  held  a  desk  and  blackboard.  The  day 
school  showed  need  of  supervision  and  the  young 
Chinese  teacher  explained  with  some  embarrass- 
ment that  a  number  of  his  pupils  were  absent  that 
day  for  various  reasons.  The  yard  back  of  the 
chapel  proved  to  be  a  passageway  leading  to  the 
girls'  school  in  the  rear,  where  the  pastor  lived. 

Near  by  stood  a  fifty-foot  hill,  on  top  of  which 
were  the  offices  of  the  Chinese  society  for  the 
extermination  of  the  opium  traffic.  Here  we 
made  a  formal  call,  secured  some  information, 
were  politely  assured  of  distinguished  considera- 
tion, and  went  our  way  into  the  city's  maze  again. 

The  old  First  Church  proved  an  interesting 
place.  Located  upon  the  long  main  street  of  the 
city,  it  included  a  church,  a  street  chapel,  a  boys' 
school,  a  girls'  school,  and  living  apartments  for 
the  pastor.  The  school  is  in  full  session,  and  with 
everybody  studying  aloud  the  result  may  be  heard 
a  square  away.    Five  schoolrooms  are  filled  with 


88  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

sturdy  Chinese  children,  and  every  eye  is  fixed 
upon  the  foreigner  as  he  sets  up  his  camera  for 
a  picture.  Under  the  energetic  management  of 
a  young  man  recently  appointed  to  this  church, 
the  street  chapel  has  again  been  opened  for 
service  every  evening,  the  congregations  have 
been  greatly  increased,  and  something  like  self- 
support  has  been  reached. 

Occasional  stops  to  talk  with  shopkeepers  and 
citizens  consume  some  time,  but  we  take  up  our 
journey  and  pass  the  military  garrison,  the  new 
paved  street — a  curiosity  in  its  way — and  the  fine 
mission  hospital  of  the  American  Board. 

Noon  time  finds  us  hungry.  "American  or 
Chinese  chow?"  inquires  my  friend. 

"Chinese,  if  you  please,"  I  specify,  and  after 
a  good  meal  in  a  Chinese  restaurant  and  a  half 
hour's  rest  we  make  our  way  to  the  very  center 
of  the  great  walled  city.  Here  is  the  missionary's 
pet  "proposition,"  and  here  we  spend  an  hour  or 
two.  With  suitable  frontage  on  the  main  street 
we  find  an  extensive  property  covered  with  good 
Chinese  buildings.  This  is  to  be  the  new  Central 
Church  property  of  the  city.  Some  of  these 
buildings  are  now  rented  for  business  purposes, 
and  a  number  of  the  interior  rooms  are  used  for 
school  purposes.  Halls  are  opened  for  public 
meetings,  social  service  work  is  being  organized, 
and  an  institutional  program  is  outlined  for  work, 
not  among  the  poor,  but  among  the  well-to-do 


THE  MISSIONARY  AT  WORK     89 

and  educated  people.  This  missionary  wanders 
about  among  the  bewildering  maze  of  rooms 
within  rooms  and  rooms  beyond  rooms  and  plans 
and  programs  till  my  head  whirls.  What  manner 
of  man  is  this  who  can  carry  in  one  mind  the 
gigantic  outlines  and  minutest  details  of  this  vast 
project? 


A    CONFUCIAN    TEMPLE 


A  half  hour's  walk  brings  us  to  a  church  and 
industrial  school  in  one  of  the  outlying  districts. 
Here  the  boys  are  learning  to  weave  and  general 
thrift  pervades  the  place.  The  church  has  been 
whitewashed  and  looks  very  clean  and  attractive. 
Industrial  work  has  often  proven  a  difficult 
matter,  but  this  particular  school  is  making  good. 

On  again,  the  Union  Medical  School  and  affili- 
ated hospital  being  our  goal,  but  as  we  have  other 
matters  on  hand  to-day,  we  pay  scant  attention 
to  this  very  interesting  institution. 


90 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


A  Buddhist  monastery  gets  attention  only  be- 
cause it  affords  a  short  cut  through  its  temples 
and  from  the  hundred-foot 
hilltop,  we  view  the  vast  ex- 
panse of  house  roofs  while  I 
listen  to  the  story  of  the 
revolution  as  it  surged  up 
against  these  slopes  and  left 
its  trail  of  blood  and  death  in 
the  streets.  The  American 
Board  College  lies  at  our  feet 
and  the  strident  sound  of  stu- 
dent athletics  comes  up  to  us 
mingled  with  the  murmur  of 
the  crowded  streets. 

A  half  hour  beyond  lies  a 
hospital  and  dispensary  in 
charge  of  a  motherly  Chinese 
woman  who  is  a  graduate  of 
an  American  medical  school 
and  speaks  excellent  English. 
The  cleanness  and  general  effi- 
ciency about  the  place  are  like 
a  breath  of  heaven  in  a  very 
dirty  world. 

By  this  time  I  began  to  look 
at  my  watch  and  hint  that  I  had  taken  enough  of 
my  guide's  time.  My  feet  were  sore,  my  head 
was  tired,  my  eyes  were  weary,  and  I  was  close 
to  the  limit  of  endurance  for  one  day. 


INDUSTRIAL  MISSION 


THE  MISSIONARY  AT  WORK    91 

"O  no,  I  have  planned  this  day  for  this  pur- 
pose, and  we  are  now  just  well  started,"  he 
assures  me,  and  off  we  start  in  a  new  quest.  More 
chapels,  schools,  careful  plans,  great  schemes,  and 
minute  details  till  darkness  sets  in  and  I  am  ready 
to  faint. 

"Really,"  at  last  I  break  forth,  "I  can  endure 
no  more.  Nothing  sticks  to  my  mind  now,  but 
runs  off.  If  there  is  any  way  to  ride  home,  I  must 
beg  for  mercy." 

"All  right,"  he  cheerfully  assents.  "Climb  into 
my  chair  and  I  will  pick  up  one  in  the  street." 

Wearily  I  climb  into  the  welcome  chair  and  off 
we  swing  through  the  smoky  streets,  growing 
darker  every  moment.  When  we  have  finished 
the  three  miles  back  to  the  bridge  I  look  around 
to  see  my  friend,  not  riding  in  a  chair,  as  I  had 
supposed,  but  striding  along,  apparently  as  fresh 
as  when  we  set  out  in  the  morning.  I  marvel  at 
the  man,  and  when  I  make  bold  to  comment  upon 
his  efforts  to  finish  me  in  one  day  he  ignores  the 
matter  and  goes  on  with  his  endless  story  of  what 
ought  to  be  done,  of  what  he  is  going  to  do,  and 
of  how  he  is  going  to  get  the  means  to  carry  out 
his  plans. 

That  evening,  while  I  lie  around  and  rest,  he 
is  up  till  eleven  o'clock  getting  a  party  off  down 
the  river.  It  takes  three  hours  of  hunting  and 
hiring  and  arguing  and  commanding  to  get  those 
coolies  lined  up  and  the  boat  arranged  and  all 


92  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

matters  settled.  I  suppose  that  he  went  to  bed 
after  that,  but  I  cannot  prove  that  he  did  not  go 
on  getting  that  city  evangelistic  work  whipped 
into  line  for  the  new  program.  I  am  sure  that  he 
is  at  it  now. 

Camping  in  Church 

Sleeping  in  church  is  taboo,  even  in  China,  but 
there  are  times  when  no  other  solution  appears  to 
the  problem  of  sleeping  at  all. 

Six  o'clock  p.  M.  in  a  town  of  five  thousand 
people,  with  no  hotel,  camp  ground,  vacant  lots, 
not  even  a  good  barn  with  its  fragrant  hay  mow, 
nothing  but  narrow  crooked  streets,  open  cess- 
pools, wandering  hogs,  barking  dogs,  and 
swarming  children — where  would  you  sleep  under 
such  circumstances  ? 

Here  stands  the  church,  substantial  and  clean 
and  big  enough  for  a  congregation  of  three  hun- 
dred. Above  its  "L"  are  two  small  rooms  fitted 
up  for  the  pastor's  home,  but  now  used  for  Sun- 
day school  purposes,  since  a  neat  parsonage  has 
been  built  in  the  rear  of  the  church.  The  pastor 
is  away,  visiting  other  churches,  and  as  no  one 
knew  of  our  coming,  no  firecrackers  greet  our 
arrival.  We  find  the  official  who  holds  the  church 
key  and  proceed  to  make  ourselves  at  home. 
While  the  men  unpack  the  baggage  one  of  the 
ladies  entertains  the  crowd  of  children  just  out- 
side the  door,  and  soon  all  preparations  for  the 


THE  MISSIONARY  AT  WORK    93 

evening  meal  are  under  way.  Cots  for  the  ladies 
are  spread  in  the  upper  room  and  the  men  make 
up  their  beds  in  the  aisles  or  seats  of  the  church 
below.  Supper  is  eaten  with  the  relish  of  hungry 
and  tired  travelers  and  peace  reigns  everywhere. 

A  full  moon  lends  attractiveness  to  an  evening 
stroll  along  the  streets.  They  look  better  by 
moonlight,  and  in  the  cool  of  the  evening  the 
smells  seem  to  abate  a  little.  We  find  a  gambling 
joint  in  full  swing  and  several  of  our  own  coolies 
busy  with  the  game. 

Back  at  the  church  all  is  quiet,  except  for  a 
steady  rumble  from  the  corner  where  one  of  our 
weary  pilgrims  has  already  found  rest  from  the 
toil  of  the  day's  travel.  Obviously  and  evidently, 
he  is  asleep.  As  we  squirm  about,  seeking  the 
soft  spots  on  the  upper  side  of  the  uncushioned 
church  pews,  the  evidences  of  slumber  become 
more  pronounced.  In  the  back  yard  the 
preacher's  dog  joins  in  the  chorus,  and  he  has  a 
wonderful  voice — for  a  dog.  Louder  grows  the 
ensemble  of  sound  until  a  crash  in  the  corner  sug- 
gests bombardment  of  the  church  from  without. 

At  last  we  doze  off,  in  spite  of  the  resonant 
sleeper  in  the  corner.  After  one  more  explosion 
in  the  corner  we  get  some  rest.  When  daylight 
brings  its  returning  duties,  we  examine  that  noisy 
corner  of  the  building  and  find  two  piles  of 
mortar  where  the  plaster  has  fallen  in  the  night. 
What  caused  it?    That  is  a  delicate  question,  at 


94  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

least  so  it  proved  with  one  member  of  the  party. 
Probably  Chinese  plaster  was  never  intended  to 
withstand  the  shocks  of  real  foreign  snoring. 

Breakfast  in  the  tower  room,  hampers  packed, 
the  crowd  of  curious  parted  to  allow  us  to  pass, 
and  after  much  wrangle  and  dispute  over  loads 
we  are  on  our  way  once  more,  each  man  with  his 
personal  lunch  and  bottle  of  boiled  water  for  the 
day.  The  four-foot  rocky  road  winds  its  way 
between  little  paddies  of  brown  rice  stubble  and 
green  beans.  Here  and  there  young  wheat  shows 
three  inches  high.  Everywhere  countless  villages 
dot  the  landscape.  When  we  get  two  hundred 
yards  from  a  village  it  does  not  smell  so  bad,  and 
there  are  short  stretches  along  the  hillsides  where 
there  is  hardly  any  smell  at  all;  and  overhead  is 
the  same  blue  sky  that  looks  down  on  the  children 
of  men  in  every  land. 

Eight  Miles  of  Abuse  per  Day 

It  was  a  missionary  from  north  China  who  said 
that  twenty-five  years  ago  he  made  his  way  daily 
four  miles  across  the  city  and  back  again  through 
typical  Chinese  streets.  Everywhere  he  was 
jeered  as  a  "foreign  devil,"  and  the  whole  eight 
miles  was  one  succession  of  curses  and  vile  epi- 
thets. 

"This  may  seem  a  small  matter  to  one  who  has 
given  his  life  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  Him 
who  made  himself  of  no  reputation,"  said  the 


THE  MISSIONARY  AT  WORK     95 

veteran ;  "but  even  a  missionary  becomes  sensitive 
after  a  while.  It  is  like  the  pricking  of  a  pin,  a 
small  matter  for  a  time,  but  just  keep  it  up  and 
see  what  happens.  Eight  miles  of  curses  per  day- 
comes  to  wear  on  one's  nerves  in  a  most  surprising 
way." 

Incidentally,  it  has  been  known  that  the  Chris- 
tian in  America,  even  a  Christian  minister,  whose 
consecration  should  be  just  as  complete  as  that  of 
his  friend  in  China,  has  lost  his  temper  and  shown 
great  irritation  upon  a  single  case  of  abuse  with- 
out cause.  What  would  he  do  under  eight  miles 
per  day  of  it  ? 

Of  course  the  missionary  ought  to  stand  it  pa- 
tiently ;  that  is  what  he  is  for,  but  for  me,  here  in 
America,  the  case  is  somehow  a  little  different. 
I — er,  well,  you  see,  it  is  different. 

But  is  it? 

Meals  a  la  Chinese 

We  had  been  tramping  the  rocky  path  by  the 
river  all  afternoon,  while  the  boatmen  laboriously 
poled  through  the  rapids.  Just  before  the  sun 
dipped  behind  a  splendid  mountain  we  climbed 
into  a  village  and  visited  a  brick  church  with  its 
green  lawn  and  the  tidy  parsonage  next  door. 
The  pastor  was  away,  but  the  aged  Bible  woman 
served  refreshing  tea. 

Down  through  the  darkening  smoky  street  we 
picked  our  way.    A  man  came  out  of  a  restaurant 


96  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

and  began  to  tell  the  doctor  about  his  sick  wife. 
While  we  talked  we  sat  down  on  stools  by  the 
tables.  Any  sort  of  seat  was  welcome.  I  took 
stock.  Dingy  rafters,  smoky  cobwebs,  muddy 
floor,  squirming  pigs  and  dogs,  steaming  pots  in 
front,  tables  for  guests  in  rear,  customers  eating 
noisily,  general  bustle  of  business — such  it  was. 
One  of  the  "waiters'*  placed  a  bowl  of  hot  noodles 
before  me.    The  odor  was  appetizing. 

"What  about  it,  Doctor?"  I  asked. 

"O,  that's  all  right;  it's  boiling,"  he  remarked. 

Other  dishes  followed.  What  were  they? 
How  do  I  know?  Some  were  brown,  some  were 
gray,  some  were  cream-colored,  some  were  wetter 
than  others,  but  all  were  hot.  What  did  I  do? 
Well,  if  there  had  been  any  possibility  of  death 
in  that  pot,  I  would  soon  have  been  dead.  I  did 
full  justice  to  the  meal.  Was  it  good?  Certainly 
it  was  good.  Many  things  Chinese  are  good. 
Shutting  your  eyes  helps  a  little,  but  the  Chinese 
are  born  cooks,  and  my  thanks  that  night  were 
hearty  and  sincere. 

Flight  Under  Difficulties 

Here  is  a  sample  of  one  kind  of  missionary 
"ease  and  indolence."  In  a  city  of  eight  hundred 
thousand,  six  hundred  miles  from  the  coast, 
rumors  of  impending  revolution  created  much 
uneasiness  among  all  classes  of  people.  Mission- 
aries being  too  busy  to  listen,  did  not  pay  much 


THE  MISSIONARY  AT  WORK     97 


attention  to  such  talk,  and  having  full  faith  in  the 
people,  went  on  with  their  work. 

When  the  telegraph  wires  were  cut  matters 
began  to  look  more  serious.  A  few  days  later 
mails  were  stopped  and  all  communication  cut  off. 
Then  the  old  Manchu  governor  fled  the  place  and 
there  was  no  governor  at  all.  From  mission 
authorities  came  urgent  requests  to  seek  places 


^^^ 


YEN    PING    WATER   FRONT 


of  safety  before  the  storm  broke.  Still  no  great 
disturbance  occurred,  and  the  missionaries  con- 
tinued their  work. 

Four  foreign  men  represented  the  defensive 
force  of  the  compound.  Turn  about,  they 
patrolled  the  walls  at  night.  The  wife  of  one  of 
these  guards,  hourly  expecting  motherhood, 
watched  out  of  her  window,  her  husband  on  guard, 
while  a  houseboat  lay  in  the  river  below  for  use 
in  case  of  emergency. 

After  a  week  of  waiting  soldiers  came  and 
burned  the  Confucian  temple  and  the  governor's 


98  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

yamen.  A  man  was  appointed  as  ruler,  who  did 
nothing  whatever.  Three  or  four  governors 
sat  in  the  official  chair  during  the  next  few  weeks, 
but  each  seemed  worse  than  the  others,  and  there 
was  no  government  at  all. 

At  last  flight  became  imperative,  but  no  boat 
could  be  found  going  down  the  river.  The  officer 
in  command  of  the  troops  promised  a  boat  the  fol- 
lowing night.  With  the  two-weeks  old  baby,  the 
missionary  and  his  family  waited  on  a  sampan 
until  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  for  the  boat  that 
did  not  come.  Back  to  the  house  they  went  for  a 
few  hours  left  of  the  long  night.  The  next  day  a 
boat  did  leave  for  the  seacoast,  which  was  reached 
safely.  And  this  story  was  told  with  no  thought 
that  it  represented  any  heroism  or  hardship. 

Breaking  Up  an  Opium  Joint 

Christianity  in  action  shows  some  good  motion 
pictures,  this  one  for  instance : 

One  militant  missionary  with  his  ten-year-old 
son,  while  traveling  through  the  country,  stopped 
at  midday  in  a  large  village.  His  coolies  disap- 
peared and  did  not  return  after  a  reasonable  time. 
They  were  traced  to  the  house  of  an  opium  dealer. 
After  some  parley  with  the  keeper  the  indignant 
missionary  seized  a  stout  stick,  broke  his  way 
through  into  the  back  room,  and  there  found  a 
half  a  dozen  smokers,  including  his  own  men. 
The   outraged   proprietor   commanded   the   in- 


THE  MISSIONARY  AT  WORK     99 


truder  to  leave,  but  at  this  point  he  misjudged 
his  man. 

Forthwith  real  action  began.  The  invader 
seized  a  bamboo  chair  and  laid  on  with  vigor  in  all 
directions.  He  smashed  lamps,  broke  pipes,  de- 
stroyed furniture,  and  soundly  drubbed  the  dull 
smokers.  Within  three 
minutes  every  one  was  out  . 
of  doors,  the  place  was  a 
wreck,  and  general  pande- 
monium reigned,  while  a 
crowd  filled  the  street. 

Taking  a  position  of 
vantage  in  front  of  the  de- 
molished den,  the  mission- 
ary "in  charge"  proceeded 
to  address  the  people,  tell- 
ing them  that  they  knew 
well  enough  that  the  whole 
opium  business  was  illegal 
and  infamous  and  that  it  be- 
hooved the  people  of  the 
village  to  make  it  impossible  for  the  place  to 
resume  business. 

The  now  thoroughly  frightened  keeper  fell  on 
his  knees  and  promised  never  to  open  the  place 
again,  if  only  he  might  be  assured  immunity  from 
report  and  prosecution  this  time.  After  securing 
pledges  from  the  bystanders  that  this  promise 
would  be  kept,  the  opium  merchant  was  per- 


THE       WHITE       PAGODA 


100  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

mitted  to  go  his  way  and  repair  his  property — 
for  residence  purposes  only. 

Six  months  later  the  missionary  came  that  way 
again  and  could  find  no  evidence  that  the  place 
had  been  reopened  or  that  the  proprietor  had 
established  his  business  elsewhere. 

Missionary  Tiger-Hunting 

When  a  man  quits  a  successful  career  as  a  life 
insurance  agent  because  he  wants  a  harder  job, 
it  should  cause  no  surprise  when  he  sallies  forth 
single-handed  to  rid  a  province  of  man-eating 
tigers.  The  exploits  of  this  particular  pioneer 
are  very  damaging  to  the  traditions  of  the 
frock-coated  missionary,  living  "apart  from  the 
world,"  but  they  are  still  more  damaging  to  the 
tigers,  which  is  the  main  point  for  the  terrified 
people. 

It  is  down  in  Fukien  Province  that  big  spotted 
tigers  hide  in  the  grasses  and  brush  of  the  ravines 
in  the  mountain  sides.  From  these  lairs  they  prey 
upon  man  and  beast  and  terrorize  large  commu- 
nities of  people.  The  people  are  without  defense, 
and  when  a  family  meal  is  interrupted  by  the  un- 
announced spring  of  a  huge  tiger  through  the 
door  that  he  may  carry  away  a  pig  or  a  child, 
there  is  little  wonder  that  the  old  priests  were 
besought  to  use  their  occult  powers  to  defend  the 
people  from  the  terror  that  flieth  by  night — and 
day. 


THE  MISSIONARY  AT'^OBK  ^W/i 

To  this  missionary,  intent  upon  his  work  in  a 
district  of  two  miUion  souls,  came  terrible  tales  of 
the  ravages  of  these  great  beasts.  A  farmer  sat 
down  at  midday  to  eat  his  lunch,  while  his  cow 
with  which  he  had  been  plowing  stood  near  by. 
Without  warning,  a  tiger  sprang  from  the  grass 
and  killed  the  cow  in  the  open  field.  Often  has 
a  tiger  rushed  into  a  house  where  the  usual  daily 
routine  was  in  progress  and  carried  away  a  pig, 
or  even  a  calf.  Two  men  were  antelope-hunting 
and  accidentally  discovered  a  big  tiger.  The 
infuriated  cat  rushed  upon  the  men,  knocking 
them  down  and  starting  to  drag  away  the  nearer 
one.  This  man,  however,  seized  a  tree  in  the  path, 
and  the  tiger  let  go  and  fled.  On  another  occa- 
sion three  men  were  suddenly  attacked  and  two  of 
them  crushed  to  the  earth,  while  the  third  was 
torn  to  pieces  before  an  outcry  could  be  raised. 

Then  one  day  Sir  Tiger  went  one  step  too  far 
and  the  missionary  got  into  action.  On  an  evil 
day  a  tiger  killed  and  ate  a  sixteen-year-old  boy 
as  a  climax  to  a  number  of  atrocities.  Two  days 
later  the  man  with  the  gun  set  out  to  dispose  of 
the  beast.  He  led  a  mother  goat  and  two  kids 
into  a  ravine  where  the  tiger  kept  open  house 
when  he  was  at  home.  The  old  goat  was  tied 
to  a  tree  and  the  kids  placed  in  a  basket  hidden 
in  the  tall  grass.  Behind  a  convenient  clump  of 
bunch  grass  the  hunter  hid  himself  and  awaited 
results. 


M^  n. J^ftlNA  INSIDE  OUT 

One  of  the  interesting  things  about  a  tiger  hunt 
is  the  uncertainty  as  to  which  is  hunter  and  which 
is  hunted  and  which  may  win  out  in  the  finish. 
Two  hours  passed  in  utter  silence,  except  for  the 
bleating  of  the  goats.  Try  it  yourself  and  see  how 
long  an  hour  lasts  when  it  is  a  test  between  the 
stealth  of  a  man-eating  tiger  and  the  strategy  of 
a  tiger-hunting  man. 


At  last,  just  when  the  ambushed  man  was 
about  to  give  up  the  quest,  twenty  yards  away 
the  immense  yellow  head  of  the  man-eater 
emerged  from  the  grass.  He  had  not  yet  exactly 
located  the  kids,  but  was  within  fifteen  feet  of 
them.  As  he  lay  crouched  on  the  ground,  he  was 
a  fair  mark,  and  one  crack  of  the  rifle  caused  him 
to  settle  in  his  tracks  with  scarcely  a  quiver.  A 
second  shot  insured  safety.  Nine  feet  between 
tips  and  four  hundred  pounds  describe  the  big  cat 
that  had  terrorized  the  community  for  months. 


THE  MISSIONARY  AT  WORK  103 

Now,  the  neighborhood  in  question  had  a  for- 
givable personal  interest  in  this  tiger  hunt,  and 
the  two  shots  were  the  signal  for  all  and  sundry  to 
pour  forth  in  great  excitement  and  rush  to  the 
ravine.  From  all  directions  they  came,  not  so 
much  to  see  the  dead  tiger,  as  to  save  every  avail- 
able drop  of  his  blood.  Rags,  handkerchiefs,  any 
old  bit  of  cloth  was  used  to  catch  this  blood,  which 
has  (in  China)  two  very  important  uses.  A  bit 
of  rag  saturated  with  this  blood  hung  about  the 
neck  of  a  child  will  prevent  both  measles  and 
smallpox.  (The  reasonableness  of  this  will  be 
understood  by  people  who  tie  bits  of  asafetida 
about  the  necks  of  helpless  babies  for  similar  pur- 
poses.) Then  blood-soaked  rags  waved  in  front 
of  cross  dogs  will  cause  them  to  turn  tail  and  slink 
away.  Tiger  meat  is  also  sold  at  very  high  prices, 
and  eaten  as  a  prophylactic  against  all  sorts  of  in- 
fection and  to  give  the  eater  bravery  and  strength. 

Not  caring  to  go  into  the  meat  business,  the 
successful  hunter  saved  the  skin  and  turned  the 
rest  of  the  tiger  over  to  his  cook,  as  a  reward  for 
faithful  services,  and  the  cook  made  some  fifty 
dollars  out  of  it.  When  all  was  over  not  a  scrap 
of  tiger  was  left. 

There  is  a  lot  more  of  this  tiger  story,  but  what 
has  it  to  do  with  the  work  of  a  missionary  ?  Well, 
three  or  four  things  seem  to  justify  the  proceed- 
ings. No  man  could  sit  by  content  to  see  the 
people  he  had  come  to  serve  continually  molested 


104  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

and  murdered  by  ferocious  beasts.  Self-respect 
demanded  some  action  against  the  enemy.  A 
born  naturalist,  with  several  collections,  in  the 
national  museum,  could  not  avoid  being  interested 
in  the  identification  of  what  is  probably  a  new 
species  of  the  big  beasts.  A  real  sportsman  could 
not  ask  for  anything  more  satisfactory  in  the 
hunting  line  than  this  going  after  the  big,  dan- 
gerous game  on  its  own  ground.  But,  more  than 
all  this,  successful  tiger-hunting  had  opened  the 
villages  and  the  hearts  of  the  people  in  a  way 
heretofore  unknown.  In  one  village  the  early 
efforts  of  the  missionary  were  met  with  indiffer- 
ence and  opposition  until  after  a  troublesome 
tiger  had  been  destroyed,  after  which  nothing  was 
too  good  for  the  hunter. 

One  large  village,  hearing  of  the  exploits  of  the 
tiger-slayer,  sent  for  him  to  come  and  rid  the 
people  of  their  spotted  pest.  Arriving  at  sun- 
down, the  missionary  put  up  for  the  night  and 
was  soon  surrounded  by  a  crowd  of  curious  and 
admiring  Chinese.  The  behavior  of  the  crowd 
and  exceeding  reverence  of  the  leaders  led  to  but 
one  conclusion — the  people  were  disposed  to  look 
upon  this  man  as  a  supernatural  being  and  would 
do  him  worship.  Surely,  this  was  more  than  a 
man!  Harry  Caldwell  saw  that  it  was  time  to 
act.  Standing  before  the  people,  he  showed  them 
his  gun,  told  them  of  its  power,  took  it  to  pieces 
before  them  and  explained  its  working  in  detail. 


THE  MISSIONARY  AT  WORK  105 

With  this  beginning,  he  proceeded  to  discourse 
upon  the  subject  of  faith  in  God,  and  before  the 
crowd  dispersed  he  had  their  thoughts  turned 
toward  the  Christian's  God,  whom  he  himself 
served. 

There  may  be  no  very  close  connection  between 
killing  tigers  and  building  forty  churches,  but 
when  the  same  man  does  both,  it  is  evident  that 
his  work  is,  like  himself,  a  unit,  and  may  not  be 
split  up  into  factions.  There  may  be  no  mathe- 
matical ratio  between  eight  tiger  skins  and  some 
thousands  of  converts,  any  more  than  there  is  vis- 
ible relation  between  athletics  and  personal  influ- 
ence. The  facts  appear  in  the  results,  and  when  a 
man  can  make  life  safe  and  then  make  it  worth  liv- 
ing, he  cannot  be  very  far  from  real  efficiency  in 
the  work  whereunto  he  was  sent. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  CHINESE  CHURCH  AND  ITS 
HEROES 

The  Chinese  Church — Preaching  for  Money — A 
Christian  General — Prayer  in  an  Officer's 
Tent — Won  by  Personal  Effort — The  Man  Who 
Could  Not  Pray — Faith  to  Fill  the  Church — 
The  Prodigal  Son  in  Chinese — ^A  Chinese  Altar 
Service — Persecution,  Purification,  and  Power — 

ACCORDEON    AND    PiCTURE   RoLL ^A    GrADED    SuNDAY 

School — ^A  "Church  Uncle" — Seekers  Every- 
where— ^Two  Hundred  and  Thirty-five  Men, 
Twenty-seven  Women — Sunday  Morning  in  Church 
— ^A  Double-Header  Congregation — ^The  Prayer 
Cure  for  Stupidity — Firecrackers  and  Religion 
— Possessed  by  a  Devil — Chinese  Liberality — 
QuEUELEss  Church  Officials. 

The  Chinese  Church 
The  visitor  is  profoundly  impressed  with  the 
vigor  and  vitality  of  the  Christian  Church  in 
China.  This  is  no  transplanted  exotic  nourished 
under  protection  of  missionary  guardians.  Here 
is  a  young  church  growing  on  its  own  root  in 
native  soil  and  bringing  forth  fruit  after  its  own 
kind.  Should  the  American  continent  sink  into 
the  sea  and  all  Europe  disappear  in  a  crash  of 
arms,  the  Christian  Church  in  China  would  con- 
tinue its  growth  and  eventually  spread  through- 
out the  whole  earth.    Faults  and  features  of  im- 

106 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        107 

maturity  there  are,  but  these  churches  show  an 
average  of  spiritual  devotion  and  moral  living  sur- 
passing that  of  the  seven  churches  of  the  first  cen- 
tury. 

Even  casual  experience  with 
these  vigorous  modern  apos- 
tles effectually  dispels  the  un- 
conscious, but  nevertheless 
innate,  idea  that  somehow 
Jesus  Christ  was  an  American 
citizen.  It  is  a  wholesome 
thing  to  find  men  who  regard 
the  gospel  as  essentially 
Oriental  in  its  origin  and  life 
and  who  are  not  thinking  in 
terms  of  America  at  all,  but 
regard  the  Christian  faith  as 
the  rightful  heritage  of  the 
Oriental  first  of  all. 

The  men  who  walk  and 
speak  in  these  pages  are 
living  to-day  and  their  work 
goes  on.  They  represent  the 
human  factors  in  the  problem 
of  organized  growth  and  are  ^  youxg  church 
themselves  more  conscious  of  personal  relations 
than  of  institutional  development.  It  is  still  fresh 
and  spontaneous  with  the  Chinese  church,  and  the 
times  of  formal  encrustation  have  not  yet  begun. 
May  they  be  long  delayed! 


108 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


Preaching  for  Money 

Are  Chinese  Christians  serving  for  pay?  Do 
Chinese  preachers  work  for  the  money  they  re- 
ceive ?    How  much  does  it  cost  to  live  ? 

Ding  Dong  Dell  (that  will  do  for  the  present) 
began  to  hold  gospel  services  during  the  last  two 
years  of  his  college  course.  The 
question  of  a  life  devoted  to  the 
ministry  was  heavy  on  his  heart, 
and  also  on  his  pocket,  for  he 
had  a  family  to  support. 
Matters  came  to  a  crisis  when 
upon  graduation  he  was  ap- 
pointed pastor  of  a  small  church 
in  a  big  city,  in  a  location  where 
"peculiar  difficulties"  (they 
have  them  in  China  too)  pre- 
sented a  hard  problem.  Salary 
— twenty  dollars,  Mexican 
(about  nine  dollars  gold),  per 
month.  Conditions — live  on 
salary  or  starve.  Perquisites — 
nothing.  Temptation — to  enter 
government  service  at  fifty 
DING  DONG  dollars  per  month,  with  promise 

of  promotion.  What  would  you  do,  American 
theological  student,  if  you  were  in  the  same  place  ? 
Eh — er — ,  well,  while  you  are  considering  the 
matter,  let  it  be  said  that  Ding  declined  the  ap- 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        109 

pointment.  And  there  was  no  one  else  for  the 
place. 

The  missionary  felt  that  Ding  could  do  that 
particular  job  better  than  any  other  man.  He 
was  so  sure  of  it  that  he  talked  with  Ding  and 
wrestled  with  God  over  the  matter  for  two  weeks, 
and  at  the  end  of  that  time  Ding  was  still  in  a 
negative  state  of  mind. 

"The  salary  is  not  enough." 

And  the  trouble  was  that  Ding  was  right  about 
it.  No  man  could  live  in  any  sort  of  comfort  on 
that  wage. 

After  a  Saturday  night  spent  largely  in  prayer 
over  the  case,  the  missionary  sought  out  Ding  at 
his  own  house  and  told  him  that  he  had  come  this 
morning  as  a  messenger  of  God  to  speak,  not  his 
own  words,  but  those  of  Him  who  had  sent  him. 
The  appointment  to  the  hard  place  was  a  direct 
call  of  God  to  follow  Him  who  had  nowhere  to 
lay  his  head  and  made  himself  of  no  reputation 
and  received  no  salary. 

After  an  earnest  statement  of  the  case,  the  mis- 
sionary left  saying  that  he  would  return  the  fol- 
lowing morning  for  the  final  answer.  This  was 
too  much  for  Chinese  politeness,  and  Ding  in- 
sisted that  he  would  come  to  the  missionary's 
house.  Not  so,  however;  this  matter  had  been 
laid  upon  the  missionary's  heart,  and  he  must  him- 
self seek  out  the  young  man. 

It  came  to  pass  that  the  following  morning 


110  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

found  the  two  men  together  once  more,  and  soon 
on  their  knees  they  were  asking  for  guidance  from 
on  high.  After  some  hesitation  and  much 
struggle.  Ding  finally  consented  to  accept  the 
call,  though  with  much  reluctance.  At  last  he 
said  very  simply,  "I  will  go." 

And  go  he  did.  The  missionary  made  an  effort, 
for  some  time  without  success,  to  increase  his 
salary  by  a  few  dollars.  And  when  Ding  once 
surrendered,  and  began  his  work,  there  came  to 
him  an  earnestness  and  enthusiasm  that  stirred 
the  hearts  of  men.  I  saw  his  chapel,  filled  with 
people,  eager  of  face  and  open-minded.  I  heard 
the  report  of  the  transformation  that  had  taken 
place  within  a  year  in  that  difficult  field.  I  felt 
the  swing  of  the  onward  movement  of  the  Church 
of  God. 

"Did  Ding  stay  put  on  the  salary  question?"  I 
asked  the  missionary. 

"He  did,  and  has  never  mentioned  the  matter 
since.    But  he  really  has  not  enough  to  live  on." 

A  Christian  General 

Square- jawed,  commanding  military  men  are 
rare  among  the  Chinese,  and  when  found  are  at 
a  premium.  Such  a  man  commands  ten  thousand 
troops  in  one  of  the  central  provinces.  Large  of 
person,  dignified  in  bearing,  he  moves  with  the 
presence  of  a  man  who  can  grasp  affairs  and  hold 
them. 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        111 

Such  a  man  proved  a  shining  mark  for  the 
evangehstic  passion  of  a  Chinese  district  super- 
intendent, and  General  Wu  became  a  Christian. 
Shortly  after  this  decision  he  wrote  to  the  chief 
official  of  the  missionary  forces  asking  for  instruc- 
tions concerning  the  conditions  of  church  member- 
ship and  baptism.  And  the  bishop,  knowing 
pretty  well  from  previous  experience  what  such 
inquiries  involved,  replied  that,  among  other 
items,  he  must  be  the  husband  of  one  wife — only. 
If  he  had  others,  he  must  arrange  for  their  sup- 
port and  put  them  away. 

During  the  session  of  the  Yangtse  Mission 
Conference  in  1914  General  Wu  appeared  with 
his  wife  and  baby,  the  latter  brought  for  baptism. 
After  conversation  with  the  bishop,  he  addressed 
the  Conference,  telling  the  manner  of  his  conver- 
sion and  the  power  of  his  new  experience  in  the 
Christian  faith.  Very  frankly  he  told  of  his  pre- 
dicament when  he  became  a  Christian.  He  had 
married  both  his  wives;  according  to  Chinese 
standards  he  had  done  nothing  wrong.  He  had 
laid  the  case  before  some  wandering  missionary, 
who  had  told  him  that  he  might  keep  both  wives 
and  serve  God.  When  the  bishop  wrote  to  him 
that  he  must  cleave  to  his  first  wife  only,  then  he 
knew  that  the  teaching  of  the  bishop's  church  was 
right,  and  he  had  now  arranged  for  the  support 
of  his  second  wife  among  her  own  people. 

From  personal  matters  the  general  proceeded 


112  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

to  the  discussion  of  national  and  world  affairs. 
Holding  up  a  copy  of  the  Bible,  he  said,  "Here  is 
the  one  hope  of  China,"  and  hearty  applause 
drowned  his  voice.  "What  our  people  need  is 
moral  leadership  and  backbone,"  he  continued. 
"Our  leaders  fall  down  when  the  pressure  comes. 
They  'squeeze'  and  use  their  offices  for  their  own 
profit,  and  they  cover  up  the  truth.  This  book 
alone  has  the  cure  for  all  that." 

As  to  the  nations  of  the  earth,  he  believed  that 
the  United  States  could  be  counted  on  to  befriend 
China  in  her  hour  of  need.  He  was  sure  that 
President  Wilson  was  a  Christian  man,  and  he 
had  a  reason  for  his  faith.  No  man  but  a  Chris- 
tian would  have  handled  the  Mexican  situation 
as  the  President  had  done.  Any  purely  selfish 
man  would  have  tried  to  take  possession  of  Mex- 
ico for  the  benefit  of  the  United  States  and  to  the 
disadvantage  of  the  Mexican  people,  long  before 
the  date  of  that  Conference. 

At  the  proper  time  followed  the  baptism  of  the 
general's  baby.  And,  most  remarkable  of  all,  it 
appeared  that  the  general  himself  had  not  yet 
been  baptized.  He  had  put  away  his  wife,  made 
his  public  profession,  become  a  probationer  in  the 
church,  and  was  proclaiming  his  faith  everywhere. 
But  his  only  living  parent  was  his  aged  mother, 
and  he  was  using  every  means  in  his  power  to  win 
her  to  the  Christian  faith,  that  he  might  lead  her 
with  himself  to  the  altar  for  Christian  baptism. 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        113 

Prayer  in  an  Officer's  Tent 

May  a  heathen  offer  a  prayer  acceptable  to 
God?  One  missionary  told  me  of  receiving,  the 
day  before,  a  letter  from  a  Confucian  officer  in 
the  army  of  the  late  Yuan  Shih  Kai,  saying  that 
on  the  preceding  evening  several  officers  had 
gathered  in  his  tent,  and  that  after  a  long  con- 
versation regarding  the  Christian  religion  it  was 
proposed  that  they  offer  then  and  there  a  prayer 
to  the  Christian's  God.  None  of  those  present 
were  Christians,  but  they  had  all  been  impressed 
by  the  faith  and  lives  of  the  Christians.  It  ap- 
peared also  that  they  wished  to  secure  the  favor 
and  influence  of  the  Christian's  God  in  the  hour 
of  great  responsibility  and  anxiety  that  then 
rested  upon  them.  Whereupon  a  prayer  meeting 
had  been  held  in  the  tent,  and  the  writer  was 
addressing  the  missionary  with  the  request  that 
he  remember  in  his  prayers  the  little  band  of  men 
who  had  offered  for  themselves  a  prayer  to  God. 

Won  by  Personal  Effort 

In  the  midst  of  the  most  remarkable  movement 
toward  the  church  yet  seen  in  southern  China  I 
asked  how  all  these  seekers  had  been  interested 
and  brought  to  the  point  of  enrollment.  Was 
it  by  great  sermons,  or  high-pressure  revival 
methods,  by  house-to-house  work,  by  special 
prayer  bands?    How  had  it  been  done? 


lU 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


With  one  accord  it  was  agreed  that  while  all 
of  these  agencies  had  been  used,  no  one  of  them 
accounted  for  the  results.  "These  thousands  have 
come,"  they  said,  "because 
their  personal  friends  went 
out  after  them.  Practically 
'  every  inquirer  has  come  as 
I  the  result  of  personal  solicita- 
tion by  some  Christian  who 
knew  him  and  recommended 
to  him  the  new  way  of  life 
that  had  brought  so  much 
-  happiness  into  his  own  life." 


The  Man  Who  Could  Not 
Pray 

As  the  train  slowed  down 
at  Tong  Shang  I  stood  on  the 
steps  and  scanned  the  faces 
of  the  crowd.  There  he  stood ; 
I  had  never  seen  him  before, 
but  in  foreign  clothes  I  recog- 
nized him  at  once,  and  he  like- 
wise knew  me. 

"This  is  Dr.  Wang,  I  am 
sure,"  I  began. 
"Yes,"  he  replied,  "and  I  know  you,  for  my 
friend  wrote  that  you  would  be  on  this  train.    But 
how  did  you  know  me?" 

"That  is  easy.    You  see,  we  are  old  friends  who 


DAT    SCHOOL   AND 
BIBLE-WOMAN 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        115 

have  never  met  before.  I  have  known  of  you 
and  of  your  work  for  many  years  and  have  told 
your  story  in  many  places." 

This  evidently  was  a  poser  to  Chinese  modesty. 
"I  am  sure  that  there  was  nothing  to  tell,"  he 
demurred,  "but  I  am  glad  to  meet  a  friend  from 
the  United  States." 

The  train  stopped  fifteen  minutes,  and  not  one 
of  them  was  lost.  Dr.  Wang  told  me  of  his  work 
in  the  hospital,  of  his  Simday  labors  as  a  gospel 
preacher,  of  his  hopes  for  larger  things  for  the 
Chinese  church.  It  needed  some  urging  to  get 
anything  that  was  purely  personal,  but  even 
Chinese  modesty  will  give  way  before  American 
persistence. 

As  the  engine  bell  clamored  for  attention.  Dr. 
Wang  drew  from  his  pocket  a  photograph  of  him- 
self, saying  that,  while  it  was  "an  unworthy  gift," 
he  wished  to  give  me  something  as  a  small  me- 
mento of  the  visit,  and  would  be  happy  if  I  would 
write  him  a  letter  from  my  far-away  home  in 
America.  The  serious  and  kindly  face  is  before 
me  now  and  seems  to  invite  me  to  proceed  with 
this  tale.  Some  of  it  has  been  told  before  by  those 
who  knew  it  better  than  I,  but  it  deserves  retell- 
ing. 

It  was  some  years  ago  that  Wang  Hsang  Ho 
was  graduated  from  Peking  University  and  be- 
came an  assistant  in  the  medical  college  and  hos- 
pital.   When  his  pay  began  it  was  small  enough, 


116  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

but  it  was  pay,  and  as  such  was  subject  to  the 
tithe,  and  the  tithe  helped  to  educate  another 
Chinese  boy  in  the  university.  The  young 
assistant's  pay  grew  with  his  experience,  and  Hke- 
wise  his  contributions  increased  to  all  good  causes. 
When  in  due  time  he  was  appointed  assistant 
physician  of  the  hospital  at  Tong  Shang,  it  was 
borne  in  upon  him  that  here  at  last  was  an  exceed- 
ing great  opportunity  to  become  a  healer  of  the 
soul  as  well  as  of  the  body. 

Holding  religious  services  in  a  secular  hospital 
was  a  ticklish  matter  in  China,  as  it  is  in  America, 
and  presently  Dr.  Wang  offered  his  resignation 
to  the  physician  in  charge  in  order  that  he  might 
give  his  whole  time  to  Christian  service.  The 
head  physician,  however,  took  a  very  different 
view  of  the  case;  in  fact,  he  seriously  objected  to 
losing  Dr.  Wang  under  any  circumstances. 

"Hold  all  the  religious  meetings  you  please 
right  here  among  the  patients,"  he  said.  "How 
could  you  find  a  better  chance?" 

Well,  a  hospital  ward  is  like  heaven  in  this 
respect,  that  "congregations  ne'er  break  up," 
and  Dr.  Wang  saw  the  point  and  stayed.  And 
results  proved  that  the  patients  were  by  no  means 
averse  to  hearing  the  teaching  of  the  man  who 
helped  them  get  well. 

Hymn  books  and  scriptures  helped  along  the 
work,  and  everybody  was  happy  and  would  have 
continued  to  be  so  had  it  not  been  for  the  Boxer 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        117 

outbreak  of  1900.  When  the  storm  broke,  the 
foreign  doctor  left  the  hoispital  in  charge  of  Dr. 
Wang  while  he  sought  a  place  of  safety.  So  well 
did  Dr.  Wang  manage  the  situation  that  the 
patients  attributed  his  success  to  the  help  of  the 
God  whom  he  served. 

It  came  to  pass  in  those  days  of  blood  and  death 
that  the  hospital  became  a  veritable  place  of 
refuge  for  persecuted  Christians.  They  came 
from  near  and  far,  and  Dr.  Wang  hid  them  away 
in  all  sorts  of  nooks  and  corners  about  the  place. 
At  one  time  seventy  people  were  secreted  some- 
where in  that  hospital.  He  protected,  fed, 
clothed,  and  sent  on  their  journeys  these  tor- 
mented followers  of  the  Jesus  religion.  The 
Boxers  did  not  directly  disturb  the  hospital,  prob- 
ably fearing  the  man  who  could  make  such  medi- 
cine. How  many  lives  he  saved  can  never  be 
known.  Some  said  it  was  his  medicine,  some 
thought  it  must  be  a  mystic  power,  others  knew 
it  was  his  God;  but  whatever  it  was,  it  worked, 
and  the  storm  raged  its  way  through  those  terrible 
months. 

In  process  of  rescue  and  revolution  it  came 
about  that  the  Russians  took  the  hospital  and 
filled  it  with  their  own  wounded  troops.  The 
Russian  doctor,  seeing  that  Wang  was  a  man  of 
no  mean  attainments,  persuaded  him  to  remain  as 
assistant,  and  it  was  but  a  few  days  until  the  sick 
Russians  preferred  his  sympathetic  ministrations 


118 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


to  the   rough  handling  of   their   own  surgeons. 

At  last  there  came  a  day  when  it  was  over. 

Sadder  and  wiser,  the  Boxers  went  back  to  their 

ruined      homes.         Foreign 

troops    kept    the    peace    of 

Peking,  Russian  troops  went 

back  to  their  cold  barracks, 

and    for    the    first    time    in 

months  Dr.  Wang  had  time 

to  think  of  his  own  affairs. 

About  a  month  after  this 

frh.  he  met  a  missionary,  a  man 

fc  of  God,  and  when  the  mis- 

?^^  sionary  beheld  his  downcast 

face  he  knew  that  there  was 

trouble  of  no  small  dimen- 


sions. 

"Why,  Dr.   Wang,  what 
ever  is  the  matter?" 

"Well,  the  truth  is  that  I 
cannot  pray  any  more." 

"You    cannot    pray    any 
more  ?    How  is  that  ?    I  don't 
understand." 
THE  GATE  "You  scc,  it  was  this  way. 

After  the  trouble  was  over  I  got  away  from  the 
hospital  and  went  to  find  my  father  and  mother. 
I  had  remained  at  my  post  of  duty  here  and  I  had 
prayed  for  them  every  day,  and  I  believed  that 
God  would  take  care  of  them.     I  did  my  duty 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        119 

as  I  understood  it,  and  I  trusted  God  to  take  care 
of  them. 

"Then  I  went  to  find  my  father  and  mother. 
Did  I  find  them?  No.  I  found  that  the  Boxers 
had  taken  them  out  into  the  coimtry  and  had 
asked  them  to  deny  the  name  of  Jesus  as  their 
Lord.  They  were  earnest  Christians  and  refused 
to  do  this.  When  at  last  the  murderers  were  con- 
vinced that  it  was  useless  to  spend  more  time  with 
them,  they  hacked  their  bodies  to  pieces  and  threw 
them  into  the  ditch  by  the  roadside,  and  I  could 
not  even  give  them  an  honorable  burial.  Do  you 
wonder  that  I  cannot  pray  any  more?  When  I 
look  up  I  cannot  see  anything,  and  when  I  listen 
I  cannot  hear  anything.    It  is  of  no  use  to  try." 

What  did  that  missionary  say  to  Dr.  Wang? 
Being  a  wise  man,  he  did  not  argue  nor  reprove, 
nor  did  he  discuss  theology.  He  said  something 
like  this : 

"Listen,  Dr.  Wang.  Did  you  ever  hear  these 
words  before? — *And  after  this  I  beheld,  and  lo, 
a  great  multitude,  which  no  man  could  number, 
of  all  nations,  and  kindreds,  and  people,  and 
tongues,  stood  before  the  throne  and  before  the 
Lamb,  clothed  with  white  robes  and  with  palms 
in  their  hands.  .  .  .  And  one  of  the  elders  an- 
swered, saying  unto  me.  What  are  these  which 
are  arrayed  in  white  robes,  and  whence  came 
they?  And  I  said  unto  him.  Sir  thou  knowest. 
And  he  said  unto  me.  These  are  they  which  came 


120  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

out  of  great  tribulation  and  have  washed  their 
robes  and  made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb.  Therefore  are  they  before  the  throne  of 
God,  and  serve  him  day  and  night  in  his  temple ; 
and  he  that  sitteth  on  the  throne  shall  dwell 
among  them.  They  shall  hunger  no  more,  neither 
thirst  any  more;  neither  shall  the  sun  light  on 
them,  nor  any  heat.  For  the  Lamb  which  is  in 
the  midst  of  the  throne  shall  feed  them,  and  shall 
lead  them  unto  living  fountains  of  waters;  and 
God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from  their  eyes.' 
Now,  Dr.  Wang,  do  you  see  that  multitude? 
Look  up,  and  not  down,  to-day.  Your  father  and 
mother  are  among  that  blessed  throng,  far 
happier  than  they  could  have  been  here  with  you. 
God  himself  is  feeding  them  and  wiping  away 
all  their  tears.    Do  you  see  them  now?" 

"Yes,  I  see  them,"  sobbed  the  broken-hearted 
man.  "I  see  them  now,  and  I  see  something  else 
too.    Now  I  can  pray.    Will  you  pray  with  me?" 

Dr.  Wang  Hsang  Ho  is  still  resident  physician 
at  the  Tong  Shang  Hospital.  From  his  salary 
he  contributes  liberally  to  every  good  cause,  and 
of  his  personal  efforts  and  influence  he  is  a 
princely  giver.  Verily,  of  such  is  the  coming 
kingdom. 

Faith  to  Fill  the  Church 

Where  four  fifths  of  the  congregations  are 
men  a  meeting  for  women  cannot  be  a  popular 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        121 

movement.  But  a  few  earnest  souls  began  such 
a  meeting  on  Sunday  afternoon.  Numbers  grew 
until  from  the  Bible  school,  the  church  member- 
ship, and  a  few  others,  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
women  gathered  in  a  church  seating  a  thousand. 
The  one  hundred  and  fifty  were  well  worth  while, 
but,  down  on  their  knees,  they  begged  God  for 
faith  to  claim  a  church  full.  What  of  the  un- 
counted thousands  out  beyond,  many  of  them  per- 
sonal friends  of  those  in  the  meeting?  Some  of 
them  were  wives  of  Christian  husbands,  and  to 
save  the  family  must  be  brought  in.  What  should 
be  done  about  it? 

One  by  one  these  women  arose  and  voiced  the 
hope  of  their  hearts.  "I  have  faith  to  fill  the 
church,"  said  one. 

"I  believe  God  will  fill  these  seats,"  said  an- 
other. 

"We  only  need  eight  hundred  and  fifty  more," 
enthused  a  third. 

And  their  faith  and  enthusiasm  waxed 
strong. 

When  I  last  heard  from  this  meeting,  in  a  per- 
sonal letter,  there  were  some  five  hundred  women 
attending  the  meeting,  with  new  comers  every 
Sunday  afternoon.  Were  these  women  dreaming 
dreams,  or  were  they  seeing  visions  of  the  new 
kingdom  of  God  set  up  in  the  hearts  of  the  women 
of  China?  Will  they  get  the  thousand?  Yea, 
verily. 


122 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


The  Prodigal  Son  in  Chinese 

It  was  a  Sunday  school  rally  with  a  thousand 
present  and  a  program  that  would  have  aroused 
the  dullest  audience.  As  a 
"stunt"  program  in  a  contest 
it  would  have  kept  an  Amer- 
ican school  busy  to  save  itself 
from  crushing  defeat. 

Among  other  things  done 
and  said,  a  class  of  fifteen- 
year-old  Chinese  boys  en- 
acted "The  Prodigal  Son"  as 
per  Chinese  ideals  of  the  case. 
I  watched  it  from  the  gallery 
and  then  persuaded  those  boys 
to  set  up  the  principal  scenes 
in  the  compound,  while  I 
worked  the  camera. 

Bearded  and  venerable  ap- 
peared the  rich  father.  Care- 
^  less  and  unkempt,  the  younger 
son  demanded  his  share  of  the 
money.  After  regretful  pro- 
test and  much  fingering  of  the 
"the  peodigal  son"  buttons  of  the  abacus  by  the 
secretary,  a  check  was  written  and  signed,  and 
when  worldly  goods  had  been  loaded  on  the 
shoulders  of  the  coolie,  the  prodigal  set  out  to  see 
the  world. 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        123 

Arrival  in  the  far  country  was  marked  by  much 
serving  of  tea.  Gambhng,  drinking,  and  a  gen- 
eral good  time  followed  rapidly.  Then  came 
rags,  hunger,  and  the  swine  yard.  "Pigs"  made 
of  bamboo  and  black  paper  added  realistic  touches 
to  the  doleful  scene.  A  bucket  of  Chinese  hog 
fodder  looked  good  to  the  prodigal,  and  he  sat 
down  to  think  and  rose  up  to  go  back  to  his  father. 

The  father  went  out  to  meet  his  son  on  the  road 
home;  the  greeting  was  dramatic  enough,  and  in 
the  midst  of  the  feast  the  elder  brother  came  in 
from  the  fields,  hoe  on  his  shoulder  and  set  up 
such  a  commotion  and  protest  in  vigorous  Chinese 
as  must  have  made  the  original  complaint  seem 
mild  by  comparison. 

It  would  be  hard  to  excel  the  enthusiasm  and 
abandon  with  which  these  Chinese  boys  gave 
themselves  to  the  entire  production,  and  the 
naturalness  of  their  action  suggested  unsuspected 
latent  ability  in  real  dramatic  efforts. 

A  Chinese  Altar  Service 

It  is  the  closing  Sunday  evening  of  the  Confer- 
ence week.  Appointments  were  read  on  Satur- 
day evening,  and  the  evangelistic  service  has  the 
right  of  way  to-night.  Reverence  of  spirit  and 
close  attention  mark  the  entire  service,  and  at  the 
close  of  the  sermon  an  invitation  is  given  for  all 
who  care  to  do  so  to  come  to  the  altar  and  kneel 
together  for  prayer. 


124  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

They  come  from  all  parts  of  the  house  until 
the  space  is  filled.  Chinese  pastors,  superintend- 
ents, Sunday  school  teachers,  and  Christian 
workers  gather  for  a  closing  moment  of  fellow- 
ship with  each  other  and  with  God  before  they 
turn  their  faces  toward  hard  fields  and  trying 
home  conditions. 

Hear  them  pray !  Prayer  needs  no  interpreter. 
Its  beat  and  rhythm  roll  up  like  waves  of  petition 
against  the  steps  of  the  throne.  Earnest  suppli- 
cation, timid  confession,  and  strengthening  reso- 
lution make  themselves  known  in  any  language, 
though  not  a  word  can  be  understood.  Without 
any  interpretation  other  than  a  kindred  spiritual 
experience,  one  may  know  what  these  men  are 
saying  to  God. 

Hear  them  testify!  Testimony  may  be  inter- 
preted. Unknown  tongues  do  not  edify  us 
greatly  when  used  for  speaking  with  men.  And 
when  interpreted  the  word  of  their  testimony  is 
that  of  Christian  souls  in  all  ages  and  places. 
Sins  forgiven,  hopes  renewed,  hatred  purged 
from  the  heart,  love  renewed  in  overflowing 
measure  for  all  men,  new  resolves  of  greater  faith- 
fulness, hunger  for  holiness,  fullness  of  joy — 
these  are  the  things  they  say  with  shining  faces. 
The  hearer  has  a  new  interpretation  of  the  com- 
munion of  saints. 

After  the  benediction,  greetings,  farewells, 
spontaneous  hymns  sung  out  of  full  hearts,  and 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        125 


general  demonstrations  of  fellowship,  we  make 
our  way  bedward  for  a  few  hours'  rest.  The  boat 
leaves  at  4  a.  m. — but  why  raise  that  subject  here? 

Persecution^  Purification^  and  Power 

Every  notable  persecution  has  been  preceded 
by  a  preparation  of  heart  on 
the  part  of  believers.    A  few 
years  ago  the  Hinghwa  mis- 
sion was  swept  by  a  storm  of 
confession.       Thousands    of 
Christians,   including  prom- 
inent pastors,  went  down  on 
their  knees  weeping  for  their 
sins     and     repenting     their 
shortcomings.    With  no  vis- 
ible   human    leadership,    the 
fire  burned  through  the  mis- 
sion and  purified  the  church.         — 
Not    many    of    the    non-Christians 
were  moved  by  this  revival,  but  the 
spiritual  life  of  the  church  became  a 
living  thing  of  power. 

Two  years  passed.  Political  revolution  swept 
over  the  land ;  the  Manchu  government  gave  way 
to  what  proved  to  be  mostly  no  government  at 
all.  Opium  dealers  and  growers  saw  an  oppor- 
tunity to  grow  and  market  several  exceedingly 
profitable  crops  before  order  could  be  restored. 
Bandits  in  the  mountains,  corrupt  officials  and 


WENT  DOWN   ON 
THEIR    KNEES 


126  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

opium  merchants  and  farmers  combined  to  get 
rich,  and  there  was  none  to  stop  it.  They  forgot 
one  factor  in  the  situation — the  Christians.  And 
when  the  Christians  got  through  protesting  and 
fighting  the  unholy  traffic  there  were  ruined 
poppy  fields,  bankrupt  officials,  and  some  of  the 
more  conspicuous  conspirators  had  lost  their 
heads. 

All  of  this  was  no  small  matter,  and  with  no 
legal  protection  the  Christians  found  themselves 
suddenly  the  objects  of  a  concerted  persecution 
of  much  vigor  and  venom.  They  were  driven 
from  their  homes,  robbed  of  their  stock,  their 
houses  were  burned,  they  were  tortured  and  tor- 
mented and  some  of  them  lost  their  lives.  Com- 
pounds were  looted  and  sacked,  missionaries  were 
driven  to  Foochow  till  the  storm  subsided.  For 
eight  months  the  native  Christians  were  depend- 
ent entirely  upon  their  own  leadership. 

Had  any  church  at  all  been  found  after  such 
an  experience,  there  would  be  cause  for  rejoicing. 
When  the  missionaries  returned  to  the  work  they 
found  a  vigorous  and  energetic  forward  move- 
ment arising  within  the  church  and  a  strong 
tide  setting  toward  the  church  from  without. 
Within  a  year  men  were  coming  from  all  direc- 
tions and  asking  what  were  the  principles  of  the 
Christian  faith  and  what  were  the  conditions  re- 
quired for  membership  in  the  church.  Faster 
and  more  numerous  these  seekers  came,  imtil  in 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        127 

one  year  the  Christian  community  increased  by 
one  third,  and  the  seekers  came  so  fast  that  it  be- 
came almost  impossible  to  arrange  for  their  ade- 
quate instruction.  And  the  work  still  goes  on. 
Purification,  persecution,  fruit-bearing — these 
are  the  great  chapters  in  the  triumphant  march  of 
the  church  in  all  ages. 

Accordion  and  Picture  Roll 

Here  he  comes,  the  herald  of  the  Jesus  doc- 
trine. He  is  a  Chinese  pastor,  keen  and  kindly 
of  countenance,  marching  down  the  one  village 
street  playing  his  old  accordion  and  singing  in 
nasal  Chinese,  "Hold  the  fort,  for  I  am  coming." 

They  come  from  everywhere — of  course  they 
do.  In  four  thousand  years  there  has  not  been 
a  picture  show,  a  circus,  a  county  fair,  or  a  news- 
paper in  that  village.  Here  is  something  new. 
See  the  crowd  gather.  In  front  of  the  village 
temple,  old,  dirty,  and  neglected,  he  stops,  sets 
up  a  bamboo  tripod,  and  arranges  a  colored  pic- 
ture lesson  roll  sent  by  some  American  Sunday 
school.  With  gaping  curiosity  the  crowd  gazes 
upon  the  unfamiliar  pictures.  What  is  it  all 
about  anyway? 

That  is  just  what  this  evangelist  is  beginning 
to  explain.  These  pictures  represent  ancient 
"scholars"  and  holy  men,  who  attained  extraor- 
dinary wisdom,  even  the  knowledge  of  the  true 
God.    By  following  in  their  footsteps  we  too  may 


128 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


^-^.1 


m. 


find  this  God  and  learn  that  his  heart  is  not  filled 
with  ill  will,  like  these  idol  faces 
in  the  temple,  but  with  love  and 
good  will  toward  men. 

Always  there  are  some  who 
tarry  for  further  information, 
and  after  a  few  more  visits  a 
little  handful  of  the  interested 
ones  marks  the  beginning  of  a 
class  for  personal  instruction — 
and  thus  the  little  church  takes 
root  and  begins  to  grow. 

In  one  year  this  particular 
pastor  preached  the  gospel  in 
one  hundred  villages  and  set  in 
motion  forces  that  will  yet  reach 
thousands  of  people  in  the  vil- 
lages beyond. 


A  Graded  Sunday  School 

P^m^^Q^ifel  ^^'        "It  can't  be  done  here ;  condi- 
tions are  different." 

Well,  many  an  American 
church  has  gone  down  on  that 
rock  of  conservatism,  but  when 
a  Chinese  Sunday  school  can 
adopt  and  organize  a  full 
graded  system  of  teachings,  there  is  hope  for  any 
of  us. 

The  school  is  there,  and  it  works.    Ten  thou- 


PLATING   HIS   OLD 
ACCORDION 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        129 


sand  miles  from  systematic  Sunday  school  stand- 
ards, three  days'  hard  journey  back  from  the 
coast,  with  its  seaport  tincture  of  foreign  and  pro- 
gressive ideas,  we  find  four  separate  departments, 
normal  classes,  graded  in- 
struction, promotion  system. 
Cradle  Roll,  and  Home  De- 
partment, and  an  average 
attendance  of  over  three  hun- 
dred on  Sunday. 

How?  Why?  Well, 
better  ask  Who?  There  is 
the  secret.  One  missionary 
at  home  on  furlough  got  the 
vision.  Other  missionaries  on 
the  field  had  been  thinking 
about  it  and  were  ready  to 
begin.  I  visited  all  the  de- 
partments, watched  teachers 
and  classes,  and  noted  the 
striking  likeness  of  the  total 
result  to  that  in  graded 
schools  in  the  homeland. 
Efficiency,  that  much-needed 
word  in  China,  spoke  from 
every  class  and  officer.  It  was  encouraging  and 
inspiring  to  see  the  wheels  go  round  smoothly 
and  powerfully. 

Is  there   any  reader  of  this   page   who  has 
sighed  a  long  sigh  and  murmured,  "It  cannot 


SUNDAY   SCHOOL 


130  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

be  done"?    Go  to  Yen  Ping  and  learn  how  to 
doit. 

A  "Church  Uncle^' 

"Did  you  ever  meet  a  Chinese  hui  bah?" 

"What's  that?" 

"Why,  a  'church  uncle'  of  course.  Any- 
body knows  what  a  *church  uncle'  is,  in  any  lan- 
guage." 

Here  is  one  of  them;  serene  of  countenance, 
dignified  in  manner,  kindly  and  courteous  always, 
he  bears  on  his  face  the  marks  of  good  breeding 
and  high  character.  I  sat  beside  him  at  a  Chinese 
feast  one  day,  and  he  left  nothing  undone  that 
would  minister  to  my  comfort  and  entertainment. 
There  was  no  dainty  tidbit  within  reach  that  he 
did  not  get  to  my  bowl  via  his  own  chopsticks, 
which  made  nearly  as  many  trips  to  my  dish  as 
they  did  to  his  mouth. 

Graciously  he  inquired  as  to  my  honorable  age, 
and  upon  learning  how  small  it  was  as  compared 
with  his  own,  he  politely  remarked  that  at  least  I 
looked  much  older.  Doubtless  I  would  in  time 
greatly  improve  in  this  matter  and  should  not  feel 
discouraged.  When  I  asked  how  many  were  his 
honorable  years,  he  modestly  insisted  that  his 
unworthy  and  miserable  years  were  really  very 
few — only  seventy-four,  to  be  accurate.  Really 
it  was  nothing  to  speak  of. 

It  was  in  the  evening  at  the  close  of  the  evangel- 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        131 

istic  service  that  he  came  to  me,  beaming  and 
brotherly,  and  suggested  that  he  would  do  some- 
thing in  my  especial  honor.  Squaring  himself 
beside  me,  as  we  stood  by  the  altar  rail,  he  opened 
his  Chinese  hymn  book  and  began  to  sing  in  a  sur- 
prisingly good  voice,  his  own  version  of  "God  be 
with  you  till  we  meet  again."  It  was  a  good 
imitation  of  the  tune,  and  the  old  man  meant 
every  word  of  it.  I  do  not  remember  that  I  ever 
left  a  place  with  a  deeper  sense  of  benediction 
than  when  I  carried  away  that  old  hui  bah's  bless- 
ing and  song.  He  will  be  worth  looking  up  in 
heaven. 

Seekers  Everywhere 

He  was  the  first  man  called  to  report  at  the 
District  Conference.  It  was  not  fitting,  he  urged, 
that  so  young  a  man  from  a  far-away  circuit 
should  speak  first,  but  he  was  not  responsible  for 
his  place  in  the  English  alphabet.  But  since  he 
was  commanded,  he  would  obey. 

His  church  was  small  in  membership.  A  year 
ago  his  little  chapels  were  half  full  of  people  and 
there  was  scant  interest  on  the  part  of  those  with- 
out the  church.  But  the  members  had  been  faith- 
ful in  service  and  in  prayer  and  for  months  past 
men  had  been  coming  to  the  church  and  inquiring 
the  way  of  life.  Sometimes  one  or  two  came,  and 
once  twenty-four  came  in  one  day.  During  the 
year  he  had  enrolled  over  three  hundred  as  in- 


132 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


quirers,  and  he  was  deeply  grateful  to  God  for 
these  evidences  of  his  favor. 

Another  pastor  reported 
that  one  year  previous  his 
church  had  been  but  half 
"paved"  and  was  far  too  large 
for  the  congregation.  Now 
the  church  was  all  floored  and 
was  too  small  for  the  people 
who  came  to  regular  services. 
Every  Sunday  it  was  filled, 
floor  and  galleries. 

Number  three  reported 
that  his  church  membership 
had  doubled  within  the  year, 
and  that  while  during  the  pre- 
vious year  his  people  had  con- 
tributed eighty  dollars  for 
self-support,  the  past  year  had 
enabled  them  to  bring  in  two 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars. 

The  next  report  indicated 
doubling  of  membership  and 
an  entirely  self-supporting 
church. 

On  they  went,  telling  their 
trials  and  triumphs — these 
men  who  had  gone  out  as 
heralds  of  the  new  kingdom  on  earth.  Theirs  was 
no  glittering  generality.    These  men  came  from 


WAITING   FOB  CHURCH 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        133 

villages  where  every  man  knows  intimately  every 
other  man.  When  one  of  these  villagers  becomes 
a  Christian  he  is  watched  critically  and  faithfully 
by  all  the  others.  In  such  a  country  a  thousand 
earnest,  consistent  Christians  can,  by  their  con- 
sistent lives,  supply  information  about  the  Chris- 
tian faith  to  a  million  people. 


BURNING    WASTE    PAPER 


When  a  Christian  community  increases  forty 
per  cent  within  a  single  year  there  must  be  some 
explanation  forthcoming. 

"How  do  you  account  for  this  great  ingather- 
ing?"   I  asked  again  and  again. 

"That  is  what  we  are  asking  our  pastors  and 
people,"  the  missionaries  told  me.  "Most  of  them 
tell  us  that  they  feel  that  the  Christian  faith  is  the 
only  hope  and  Christian  morals  are  the  only  sal- 


134  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

vation  of  the  country.  Moral  rottenness,  political 
corruption,  'squeeze,'  self-seeking,  duplicity,  per- 
sonal interest  always  before  public  good — these 
are  the  elements  of  a  situation  in  which  the  lives 
of  the  Christians  shine  out  like  a  beacon  in  the 
night.  When  the  people  see  these  Christians, 
honest  in  dealings,  faithful  in  duty,  patient  in 
trouble  and  triumphant  under  persecution,  they 
are  hearing  a  preaching  louder  than  the  voice  of 
any  missionary.  It  is  the  lives  of  the  Christians 
that  are  forming  new  standards  of  morality  and 
creating  a  new  conscience  in  Chin'a. 

Two  Hundred  and  Thirty-five  Men, 
Twenty-seven  Women 

Come  to  the  morning  service  in  the  city  church. 
Here  it  is  on  this  wide  street,  perhaps  twenty 
feet  between  walls.  Sit  with  me  on  the  platform 
and  watch  them  as  they  enter.  Men  old  and 
young  and  hard-to-guess.  Men  poor  and  men 
well-dressed.  Ignorant  men  and  scholars  come 
and  men  with  neatly  braided  queues  sit  near 
men  with  queues  coiled  on  their  heads,  the 
badge  of  toil  and  service.  And  some  men  have 
no  queues  at  all,  but  have  discarded  them  for  the 
close  clip  of  the  foreign  style.  One  hundred,  two 
hundred,  two  hundred  and  thirty-five  men  sit 
quietly  waiting  for  the  service  to  begin. 

Over  on  the  left,  huddled  together,  sit  the 
women,  twenty-seven  of  them  all  counted,  old  and 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        135 

young,  looking  meekly  apologetic  and  very  much 
conscious  of  their  inferior  estate.  A  few  of  them 
can  read ;  there  are  several  girls  from  the  mission 
school,  and  a  few  little  girls  sit  with  downcast 
eyes.  Most  of  them  are  just  Chinese  women  and 
nothing  more. 

The  count,  with  its  reversal  of  American  condi- 
tions, is  very  suggestive.  I  begin  by  telling  the 
congregation  the  figures  and  reminding  them  that 
in  the  United  States  the  reverse  often  confronts 
the  preacher.  In  America  men  have  no  author- 
ity over  their  wives  such  as  husbands  are  said  to 
exercise  in  China.  American  wives  who  go  to 
church  try  to  bring  their  husbands  with  them, 
and  sometimes  succeed.  Surely,  the  Christian 
men  of  China  are  as  much  interested  in  the  salva- 
tion of  their  wives  as  the  Christian  women  in 
America  are  concerned  about  their  godless  hus- 
bands. As  I  counted  the  men  and  women  in  this 
church  I  began  to  hold  serious  doubts  as  to  the 
truth  of  the  statement  that  Chinese  men  are  the 
masters  of  their  wives.  Surely,  if  these  men  pre- 
sent were  really  the  lords  of  their  own  households, 
they  could  command  their  wives  to  come  to 
church,  and  the  wives  would  be  here  to-day.  It 
looked  very  much  as  if  the  Chinese  men  had  no 
more  authority  at  home  than  American  husbands. 

Back  from  the  masculine  faces  of  that  audience 
came  the  sheepish  grin  that  registered  confession 
of  the  truth.    Three  thousand  years  of  theoretical 


136  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

masculine  supremacy  has  not  been  enough  to 
stamp  out  that  balance  of  sex  authority  that  must 
obtain  in  any  family  relation  where  the  eternal 
force  of  womanhood  has  had  the  slightest  chance 
to  find  its  level.  Even  Chinese  womanhood  will 
have  its  say  and  often  times  its  way.  And  China 
will  vastly  profit  by  a  readjustment  of  domestic 
values  by  which  woman  comes  to  her  rightful 
share  in  household  management  and  to  intelligent 
equality  with  her  husband. 

Sunday  Morning  in  Church 

How  does  it  feel  to  go  to  church  in  China? 
Try  it!  Here  is  a  church  with  transept  and 
galleries  with  room,  if  closely  seated,  for  a  thou- 
sand people.  Furniture  is  strong  and  plain,  after 
the  Chinese  fashion.  The  congregation  half  fills 
the  church  before  we  begin  and  gradually  takes 
up  the  unoccupied  seats  as  the  service  proceeds. 
There  they  sit,  quiet,  curious  or  reverent  as  their 
personal  religious  life  may  suggest.  Sometimes 
the  women,  ignorant  and  dull  of  mind,  become 
garrulous  and  keep  on  talking  in  meeting.  To 
know  just  what  Paul  meant  by  asking  the  women 
to  keep  quiet  in  the  churches  one  must  go  to 
China.  All  of  them  gaze  curiously  at  the  "for- 
eign child"  seated  in  the  pulpit,  and  wonder  what 
he  may  have  to  say. 

Opening  exercises  are  much  as  anywhere  else. 
A  hymn,  prayer.  Creed,  Scripture,  offering,  an- 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        137 


other  hymn,  and  the  sermon.  Chinese  church 
services  have  one  distinguishing  feature  which 
would  make  them  a  blessing 
if  there  were  not  another  num- 
ber on  the  program,  and  that 
is  the  entire  absence  of  a  pro- 
fessional choir.  Here  at  last 
we  are  delivered  from  the  in- 
terminable repetitions  of  an 
operatic  quartet,  and  the 
"fever  and  ague"  quakings  of 
a  florid  soloist. 

What  Chinese  congrega- 
tional hymn-singing  lacks  in 
accuracy  it  makes  up  in  vol- 
ume and  earnestness.  Chinese 
people  sing  as  they  do  every- 
thing else — ^by  the  general 
method  of  getting  results  by 
any  convenient  method  that 
appears  at  the  time.  Having 
listened  to  hundreds  of  Chi- 
nese hymns,  I  do  not  remember  any 
that  did  not  get  off  the  key  some- 
where. Some  of  the  digressions 
were  so  distressingly  out  of  har- 
mony with  all  known  laws  of  musical  progression 
and  construction  that  they  jarred  painfully  upon 
a  foreign  ear.  It  often  happens  about  the  middle 
of  a  hymn  that  the  singers  leave  the  tune  entirely 


CHURCH    WITH 
TBAKSEPT 


138  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

and  break  up  into  a  general  confusion  of  noise. 
An  American  congregation  would  break  down 
and  stop  entirely,  but  not  so  with  the  Chinese.  It 
is  all  part  of  the  Chinese  way  of  doing  things. 
After  the  storm,  smoother  waters  appear,  the  sub- 
merged tune  rises  once  more  to  the  surface  and 
makes  its  way  to  the  end,  apparently  none  the 
worse  for  its  experiences. 

With  the  sermon  comes  genuine  expectation  on 
the  part  of  the  multitude.  How  can  any  man 
with  a  conscience  temporize  with  trivialities  or  tell 
irrelevant  stories  before  a  houseful  of  people 
whose  one  chance  in  a  week  to  hear  anything  of 
the  spiritual  life  may  be  that  very  hour?  It  is 
now  or  never,  and  no  man  ever  needed  to  choose 
his  words  more  carefully  than  he  who  speaks  to 
such  an  audience. 

Speaking  through  an  interpreter  has  its  diffi- 
culties, but  it  also  has  its  very  great  compensa- 
tions— particularly  for  the  audience.  Many  a 
preacher  at  home  might  be  saved  from  himself  if 
he  had  some  wise  one  to  stand  between  him  and 
his  hearers  and  make  judicious  changes  in  the  ser- 
mon as  it  proceeds.  The  fact  that  the  preacher 
does  not  know  what  the  interpreter  is  saying  has 
further  advantages.  If  he  did  know,  there  are 
times  when  he  would  stop  forthwith  and  tell  the 
interpreter  to  go  on  and  finish  his  sermon  without 
further  interruptions  from  the  visitor. 

Our  interpreter  this  morning  is  warming  to  his 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        139 

work.  More  and  more  earnest  he  becomes  and 
more  and  more  violent  are  his  tones  and  gestures. 
There  are  times  when  it  is  joy  to  work  side  by  side 
with  a  man  who  throws  himself  into  his  work  like 
a  strong  runner  to  run  a  race.  Mind  quickens 
mind,  and  there  are  times  when  two  men  are 
stronger  than  twice  one.  It  has  been  said  that 
one  of  the  greatest  blessings  vouchsafed  to  the 
new  missionary  lies  in  the  fact  that  he  cannot  be 
understood  for  two  years.  The  greatest  privilege 
granted  to  the  traveler  comes  with  the  man  who 
can  stand  between  him  and  his  hearers  and  inter- 
pret not  only  the  message  but  the  man  himself  to 
the  congregation.  Blessings  on  the  men  who  have 
stood  between  me  and  the  people  in  the  pews ! 

On  we  go,  step  by  step,  sentence  by  sentence. 
What  that  interpreter  is  saying  I  cannot  tell,  but 
I  do  know  that  he  is  having  "a  good  time,"  and 
that  he  is  holding  the  closest  attention  of  the 
people.  All  that  they  get  they  get  from  him.  No 
word  of  mine  ever  reaches  the  understanding  of 
any  but  the  occ'asional  man  who  knows  a  little 
English,  and  even  he  cannot  recognize  most  of 
the  words  I  am  using.  When  some  of  these  men 
this  morning  furtively  wipe  the  tears  from  their 
eyes  I  know  that  they  have  the  interpreter  to 
thank  for  it.  He  may  not  have  said  anything  that 
I  said,  but  what  matters  it?  Evidently,  some 
hearers  were  convicted  and  some  were  blessed, 
and  it  is  a  good  time  to  remember  that  the  end  of 


140  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

preaching  is  not  the  salvation  of  sermons  but  of 
souls.  If  my  short  sentences  help  this  good  man 
to  catch  his  breath  and  get  a  fresh  start,  it  is  well. 

The  service  closes  with  the  usual  benediction; 
then  follows  the  unusual  feature.  When  will  an 
American  congregation  learn  to  sit  down  after 
the  benediction  and  close  its  eyes  for  a  moment  of 
prayer?  The  contrast  with  the  bedlam  following 
our  benediction  is  something  never  to  forget. 

As  we  reach  the  street  the  interpreter  remarks, 
"Well,  I  had  unusual  liberty  in  interpreting  this 
morning." 

"Is  that  what  it  was?"  I  asked. 

"What  do  you  mean?"  he  inquires. 

"Well,  you  went  on  and  on,  and  I  could  not 
imagine  what  you  were  saying.  Really  now,  did 
you  say  anything  that  I  said?" 

"Surely  I  did,  but  I  said  it  the  way  that  would 
reach  those  men  most  effectively." 

"All  right,  my  brother.  Blessings  on  you.  Do 
the  same  thing  again.    I  enjoyed  it  myself." 

A  Double- Header  Congregation 

What  would  you  think,  Mr.  Pastor  of  a  church 
in  any  American  city  of  twenty-five  thousand 
people,  if  on  Sunday  morning  you  found  every 
seat  in  your  church  filled,  with  a  thousand  people 
waiting  outside  for  your  congregation  to  come 
out  and  make  room  for  them  to  come  in  for  a 
second  service  of  their  own,  eh? 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        141 


It  was  eight  o'clock  Sunday  morning  in 
Hinghwa.  In  the  cool  morning  shad- 
ows people  came  from  everywhere 
and  filled  every  seat  in  the  church, 
floor,  and  galleries,  and  amid  perfect 
order  the  service  began. 

You,  my  friend,  who  have 
been  preaching  to  critical  audi- 
ences of  people  who  are  sure 
that  they  know  as  much  religion 
and  much  more  life  than  the 
preacher,  how  would  you  feel 
standing  before  a  crowd  that 
filled  every  corner  of  your 
church  and  preaching  to  people 
who  listened  with  that  intent- 
ness  that  puts  the  preacher  on 
his  mettle  and  demands  of  him 
his  very  best? 

Perhaps  some  of  those  coolies 
and  old  women  may  not  repre- 
sent the  intelligence  of  college 
graduates,  but  they  are  eager 
to  hear  as  much  as  they  can 
comprehend,  and  there  is  neither 
sleeping  in  the  pews  nor  disturbance 
on  the  back  seats. 

Such  an  experience  makes  preach- 
ing seem  worth  while.     It  is  a  great  service,  at 
least  for  the  visiting  preacher.    But  wait !    These 


A   CROWD   THAT 

FILLED   EVERY 

CORXER 


142  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

nine  hundred  people  file  out  of  the  house  in  quiet 
order  and  a  thousand  other  people  come  in  and  fill 
seats,  aisles,  stairways,  and  windows,  and  the 
second  service  begins.  What  would  you  say  to 
that  in  your  American  church  ? 

These  churchgoers  are  not  there  merely  for 
entertainment.  At  the  close  of  the  second  service 
fourteen  men  come  forward  and  enroll  them- 
selves as  inquirers.  They  were  not  received  into 
any  sort  of  church  membership,  not  even  as  pro- 
bationers. They  were  merely  registered  as  in- 
quirers after  the  truth  and  enrolled  in  classes  for 
instruction.  But  these  inquirers  had  made  their 
break  with  heathenism,  and  it  was  a  more  radical 
step  than  a  man  takes  when  he  becomes  a  mem- 
ber of  the  church  in  America.  Henceforth  every 
one  of  them  is  known  among  his  people  as  a  Chris- 
tian, and  will  receive  the  ridicule  and  criticism 
accorded  those  who  break  with  the  old  order. 

The  pastor  of  the  church  met  each  one  of  these 
men,  talked  with  him,  and  assigned  him  to  a  class 
for  teaching.  Each  of  these  men  paid  thirty 
cents,  for  which  he  received  a  copy  of  the  Gospels 
and  Acts,  a  hymn  book,  and  a  manual  of  devotion 
prepared  by  the  pastor  himself.  Thirteen  hun- 
dred and  thirteen  people  had  been  enrolled  in  this 
way  during  the  year  that  was  just  closing,  and  the 
resources  of  the  church  and  mission  were  sorely 
taxed  to  provide  teachers  enough  to  care  for  the 
hundreds  of  these  inquirers. 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        143 

The  devotional  manual  was  a  very  interesting 
document.  Forms  of  prayer,  private  and  family 
devotions,  were  suggested.  Times  and  places  for 
Scripture  reading  were  designated.  Proper 
thoughts  of  God  were  outlined.  Chinese  pictures 
showing  the  proper  attitude  of  body  during 
prayer  were  printed.    One  of  these  cuts  showed 


A   POOR    man's   house 

a  family  seated  at  meal  time  and  reverently  bow- 
ing all  heads  while  the  father  asked  a  blessing. 
Another  showed  a  man  kneeling  at  prayer  be- 
fore retiring  for  the  night.  Still  another  showed 
the  family  assembled  while  Scripture  was  read 
and  prayer  was  offered  for  the  blessing  of  God 
upon  the  household.  Should  any  American 
pastor  find,  perchance,  any  members  of  his  church 
who,  like  the  heathen  Chinese,  do  not  know  how 
to  perform  these  acts  of  worship,  let  him  send  to 
Hinghwa  and  secure  for  their  instruction  a  supply 
of  these  manuals. 


144 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


The  Prayer  Cure  for  Stupidity 

She  was  an  exceedingly  dull  old  woman,  yet 
she  wished  to  learn  to  read.    How  could  she  know 
the  truth  unless  she  could  read 
it  for  herself? 

So  they  began,  the  patient 
missionary     teacher     and     the 
^T—  stupid  old  scholar.    But  it  was 
hard  work.     She  could  not  re- 
member the  characters  and  she 
could  not  put  them  together. 
All  too  obviously,  she  could  not 
learn  to  read  without  brains. 
Kindly    but    firmly,    the 
teacher    suggested   that    she 
give  it  up  and  learn  what  she 
could  from  those  more  fortu- 
nate than  herself.    With  re- 
proachful   eyes    she    gazed 
upon  the  missionary  a  mo- 
ment, and  said,  "Segu"  (title 
of    respect    for    a    woman 
teacher) ,  "let  us  pray."    And 
pray  they  did,  and  after  the 
prayer  the  teacher  had  not 
the  heart  to  say  her  nay.  The 
"let  us  pray"         old  woman  went  home  to  try 
it  again. 

The  next  week  it  was  no  better,  and  once  more 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        145 

the  teacher  suggested  that  they  close  the  effort. 
Once  more  the  old  woman  met  her  with  steady 
gaze  and  she  said,  "Segu,  let  us  pray." 

Again  and  again  that  teacher  tried  to  persuade 
that  old  woman  to  give  up  and  be  content  with 
her  present  attainments,  but  every  time  it  was  the 
same  answer — "Segu,  let  us  pray."  And  pray 
they  did,  on  and  on,  and  the  old  woman  kept  at  it. 

And  she  learned  to  read. 

Firecrackers  and  Religion 

We  were  making  about  three  miles  per  hour 
along  the  ancient  "paved"  highway  between  Foo- 
chow  and  Hinghwa.  Village  after  village  we  left 
behind  us,  each  much  like  the  others.  One  larger 
than  most  of  them  appeared  several  li  ahead  of 
us. 

"That  is  Uong  Dio,"  remarked  our  friend. 
"There  is  a  new  church  there,  and  we  will  stop  a 
few  minutes  to  look  at  it." 

Scarcely  had  we  reached  the  entrance  to  the  vil- 
lage when  a  fusillade  of  Chinese  firecrackers  rent 
the  air.  Chinese  New  Year's  and  an  American 
Fourth  of  July  seemed  combined  in  one.  I  had 
pulled  a  little  ahead  of  the  party  and  got  the  full 
benefit  of  the  welcome.  The  bishop  came  a  close 
second  and  became  at  once  the  center  of  attrac- 
tion. Crackers  to  right  of  us,  crackers  to  left  of 
us,  sputtered  and  thundered.  It  was  impressive 
enough  in  its  way,  and  back  of  the  smoke  and 


146  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

litter  of  red  paper  grinned  a  good-natured  crowd 
of  Chinese,  come  forth  to  welcome  their  bishop  in 
time-honored  fashion.  How,  indeed,  should  suit- 
able respect  be  shown  if  not  by  fireworks!  The 
last  dedication  service  that  I  had  attended  in  Foo- 
chow  was  opened  by  a  volley  of  firecrackers  that 
would  have  satisfied  the  heart  of  the  most  fastid- 
ious young  American  on  his  national  birthday. 
And  the  hearts  of  Uong  Dio  were  much  the  same 
apparently. 

At  the  gateway  of  the  high-walled  churchyard 
— ^more  firecrackers!  This  thing  was  to  be  done 
properly  if  it  took  all  the  crackers  in  the  kingdom. 
Once  inside  the  church,  the  clatter  ceased  for  the 
time,  and  we  looked  about.  Clean  and  new  the 
pine  floor;  white  and  clean  the  plastered  walls. 
The  roof  was  supported  by  six  massive  beams, 
rare  and  expensive  in  this  barren  country.  It 
appeared  that  these  beams  had  been  originally 
prepared  for  the  building  of  a  Buddhist  temple, 
but,  evil  days  falling  upon  the  monastery,  the 
timbers  were  secured  for  the  construction  of  a 
Christian  Church — facts  both  interesting  and 
prophetic. 

Plain  seats,  new  altar  rail,  and  simple  pulpit 
comprised  the  furnishing.  In  the  pulpit  platform 
refreshments  had  been  provided  in  anticipation 
of  the  coming  guests.  They  must  be  at  least 
tasted,  and  really  were  very  good  to  eat.  Then 
came  the  speech-making.     Church  members  and 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        147 

Chinese  scholars  crowded  to  the  front ;  merchants, 
villagers,  farmers,  and  coolies  brought  up  the 
rear.  Congratulations,  good  wishes,  and  good 
will  flowed  like  water.  Benevolent  assurances 
were  exchanged;  it  was  one  of  those  times  when 
the  hard  facts  of  life  suddenly  glow  with  a  modest 
halo  and  everyone  is  sure  that,  after  all,  life  is 
not  so  bad  as  had  been  supposed. 

In  the  parsonage  next  door  the  Chinese  pastor 
was  keeping  open  house  to  all  who  might  call 
after  the  meeting. 
A  Chinese  young 
woman,  graduated 
from  a  medical 
school  in  Canton, 
was  present,  and  in 
her  own  charming 
and  refined  person  ^^  ™e  bi^» 

served  as  an  example  of  the  kindly  and  cultured 
new  womanhood  of  her  people.  Interest,  intel- 
ligence, and  enthusiasm  centered  in  the  new  build- 
ing, and  the  entire  village  was  interested  in  what 
was  going  on.  This  eager  gathering  in  the  church 
stood  in  marked  contrast  with  the  stolid  indiffer- 
ence of  the  faces  by  the  way  in  the  villages  where 
there  was  no  church  with  its  awakening  life  and 
power. 

Let  him  who  thinks  that  a  Christian  church  in 
a  Chinese  village  is  a  small  factor  in  its  social  im- 
pulse take  a  few  hours  to  study  the  faces  of  the 


148  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

men  who  come  into  such  a  church  as  that  in  Uong 
Dio,  and  then  go  out  and  look  into  the  faces  of 
the  people  in  the  street  of  the  next  village,  per- 
Jiaps  not  more  than  a  li  away,  and  nothing  more 
need  be  said.    The  faces  tell  the  story. 

Possessed  by  a  Devil 

"Do  you  believe  in  devils?"  asked  the  mission- 
ary. 

"Do  you  inquire  concerning  my  theological 
definitions  or  personal  experience?" 

"I  will  tell  you  a  story  if  you  will  explain  it." 

"Go  ahead." 

Here  is  the  story:  A  Chinese  pastor  of  fine 
spirit  and  strong  character  was  traveling  among 
the  hills.  Suddenly  he  felt  an  impression  that  he 
should  turn  to  the  left  and  go  up  over  the  moun- 
tain in  a  direction  where  he  knew  of  no  road. 
When  he  spoke  to  his  coolies  they  refused  to  carry 
him  in  that  direction,  saying  that  there  was  a 
rough  path,  but  that  it  was  too  steep  for  them. 

Upon  this  the  pastor  laboriously  climbed  the 
path  on  foot  while  the  bearers  carried  the  empty 
chair.  Near  the  top  of  the  mountain  he  found  a 
village,  and  being  weary,  stopped  for  refresh- 
ments. The  Chinese  at  once  asked  him  whether 
he  were  a  teacher  of  the  Ya  Su  Gaw  Li  (Jesus 
religion) ,  and  he  replied  that  he  was. 

"Wait  here,"  they  exclaimed.  "This  is  the  man 
she  talked  about." 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        149 

After  a  few  moments  the  men  returned  and 
led  the  pastor  to  a  house  in  the  village.  Within 
the  house  lay  a  Chinese  wo- 
man upon  a  couch,  writhing 
in  rage  and  fury,  frothing  and 
screaming  in  terrible  fashion. 
As  the  preacher  entered  the 
door  she  began  begging  pite- 
ously,  "Don't  drive  me  away. 
Have  mercy,  don't  drive  me 
away." 

For  several  weeks  this  wo- 
man had  raved,  taking  very 
little  food.  Her  incoherent 
outcries  had  frightened  the 
people  of  the  village.  Very 
naturally  they  regarded  her  as 
being  possessed  of  an  evil 
spirit.  For  three  days  pre- 
vious to  the  coming  of  this 
pastor  she  had  exclaimed, 
"Some  one  will  come  to  drive 
me  away."  An  hour  before  he 
reached  the  village  she  began 
to  say,  "He  is  coming  to  the 
village  now." 

^  .  EARNING    TEN    CENTS 

After  looking  earnestly  at  per  day 

this  poor  woman  for  a  few  moments,  the  Chinese 
pastor  said,  very  emphatically,  "You  must  leave, 
in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus."    Whereupon  he 


150  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

sang  a  hymn,  read  a  scripture,  and  began  to  pray. 
During  the  prayer  the  woman  suddenly  became 
quiet  and  after  the  prayer  was  perfectly  normal. 
The  astonished  people  without  had  beheld  a  mir- 
acle and  besought  the  man  to  remain  among  them, 
but  he  proceeded  at  once  on  his  journey.  So  far 
as  is  known  the  woman  never  relapsed. 

"What  do  you  think  of  that?"  asked  the  mis- 
sionary. 

"I  think  that  is  a  pretty  close  relative  of  the 
cases  recorded  in  the  New  Testament.  The  ex- 
planation of  one  will  afford  the  key  to  the  other. 
Modern  psychology  will  help  us  somewhat  in 
understanding  such  cases,  but  the  facts  are  clear 
that  the  woman  was  in  some  way  possessed,  that 
neither  she  nor  anyone  else  could  control  her  con- 
dition, that  she  foretold  the  coming  of  the  pastor 
and  announced  his  immediate  entrance  to  the  vil- 
lage, that  the  pastor  was  directly  led  to  the  place, 
and  that  in  answer  to  his  prayer  the  woman  be- 
came and  remained  normal.  I  don't  see  anything 
to  stumble  over  or  wonder  at.  Unusual  mani- 
festations of  good  often  arouse  strange  activities 
of  evil.  When  Jesus  was  upon  earth  such  cases 
occurred.  The  coming  of  the  Christian  faith  to 
China  has  created  a  somewhat  similar  situation 
here,  and  it  is  not  strange  that  similar  manifesta- 
tions of  malignant  possession  should  be  found. 
What  say  you  to  that?  You  know  more  about 
this  matter  than  I." 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        151 

"That  agrees  with  my  theory  exactly.  We 
have  had  a  number  of  such  cases  scattered  over  a 
wide  area.  Some  of  them  are  close  copies  of 
the  unfortunates  of  the  gospel  narrative.  Many 
of  them  have  been  cured  in  answer  to  prayer." 

To  try  to  prove  to  the  Chinese  the  reality  of  an 
inhabited  unseen  world  is  a  waste  of  time.  He 
knows  its  reality;  what  he  wants  is  a  cure  for  its 
terrors  and  a  key  to  its  joys. 

Chinese  Liberality 

"What's  the  use  of  forever  giving  money  to 
help  a  lot  of  heathen  who  ought  to  help  them- 
selves?" Read  this  and  then  judge  for  yourself. 
When  the  Christians  of  America  reach  the  mark 
set  by  the  liberal  givers  of  the  Chinese  church, 
finances  will  cease  to  be  a  problem,  except  in  ad- 
ministration. 

Young  Men's  Christian  Association  "whirl- 
wind" campaigns  for  new  buildings  have  brought 
forward  some  liberal  givers  among  the  more  well- 
to-do  Chinese.  Christian  churches  stand  every- 
where, sometimes  built  with  no  help  whatever 
from  any  resources  other  than  those  of  the  poorest 
of  the  people.  Some  of  the  smallest  subscriptions 
have  been  literal  duplications  of  the  poor  widow's 
two  mites,  in  that  they  have  represented  the  entire 
wealth  of  the  givers. 

During  the  forward  movement  campaign  in 
Fukien  Province,  in  one  year  twenty-two  thou- 


152 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


sand  dollars  was  subscribed  for  extension  work. 
In  every  district  and  mission  station  pledges  were 
taken,  some  of  them  pathetic  in  their  sacrificial 
devotion.  In  a  country  church,  back  in  the  hills, 
this  cause  was  presented  and  much  enthusiasm 
was  aroused.  One  man,  by  years  of  toil,  had 
saved  about  one  hundred  dollars,  and  he  had  in- 
vested this  in  a  grove  of  trees,  which  represented 
his  entire  estate.  When  the  offerings  were  re- 
ceived he  arose  and  said  that  he  would  be  glad  to 
give  his  grove  of  timber  as  he  had  no  money.    It 


WAYSIDE    TEMPLE 


was  all  that  he  had,  but  if  the  giver  of  the  two 
mites  wore  a  smile  like  that  of  this  Chinese  toiler, 
her  face  must  have  been  beautiful  to  see.  This 
particular  gift  was  so  out  of  proportion  to  the 
man's  ability  that  the  missionary  insisted  upon 
adjusting  the  matter  on  a  different  basis. 

While  taking  a  subscription  for  a  church  build- 
ing in  the  southern  Fukien  region,  one  man  ex- 
plained that  six  months  before  he  had  been  very 
sick  and  that  the  church  had  taken  care  of  him. 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        153 

While  he  was  a  very  poor  man,  he  would  sub- 
scribe ten  dollars  to  the  fund — an  equivalent  to  a 
subscription  of  one  hundred  dollars  by  an  Amer- 
ican day  laborer  with  irregular  employment.  The 
next  Sunday  this  man  appeared  and  paid  one 
half  of  his  subscription,  explaining  that  his  sole 
possession  had  consisted  of  an  old  shack,  and  that 
he  had  sold  one  of  its  two  rooms  for  the  five  dol- 
lars which  he  now  paid  in  to  help  the  cause. 

It  was  in  this  same  region  that  a  certain  Chris- 
tian, old  and  blind,  planned  to  go  to  his  relatives 
in  Java.  Money  was  saved  and  raised  to  send 
him  there,  but  at  Amoy  the  health  authorities 
refused  him  permission  to  proceed.  Eventually 
he  was  compelled  to  return  to  his  former  home 
with  twenty  dollars  of  his  passage  money  still 
unspent.  This  would  have  been  a  fortune  to  the 
old  man  and  might  have  added  very  much  to  the 
comfort  of  his  declining  years.  When  the  church 
building  project  was  launched  he  gave  the  entire 
twenty  dollars,  saying  that  he  was  still  able  to 
earn  ten  cents  per  day  by  turning  a  bean-curd 
mill  and  could  live  on  that  very  well. 

The  independent  Christian  Church  in  Canton 
has  been  supported  entirely  by  money  raised  in 
Canton  and  in  America  among  Chinese  who  con- 
tribute liberally  to  the  evangelization  of  the 
people  of  their  native  city.  A  few  years  ago  a 
disastrous  fire  destroyed  much  of  the  property  of 
this  young  church  and  school.    One  of  the  bishops 


154  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

of  China,  being  in  San  Francisco  at  the  time, 
sought  the  Christian  Chinese  of  that  city  and  sym- 
pathized with  them  in  the  heavy  loss  that  had 
fallen  upon  their  work  in  Canton,  and  offered  to 
raise  for  them  a  thousand  dollars  as  evidence  of 
the  good  will  and  cooperation  of  the  American 
Christians.    This  offer  was  courteously  declined 


WRECKED   BY   A   TYPHOON 


on  the  ground  that  the  Chinese  preferred  to  bear 
all  the  expense  of  this  matter  themselves. 

A  church  was  organized  in  a  Hinghwa  village 
and  its  congregation  met  in  the  home  of  one  of  its 
members.  It  was  a  small  house,  and  as  the  num- 
bers increased  the  house  became  wholly  inade- 
quate for  the  people  who  came.  Continual  talk 
and  planless  agitation  seemed  no  more  a  cure  for 
this  situation  in  China  than  in  America. 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        155 


T 


One  Sunday  afternoon,  after  an  unusually 
earnest  service,  talk  again  centered  upon  the  need 
of  a  church.  At  last  one  wrinkled,  illiterate  old 
man  arose  and  said  that  he 
thought  that  it  was  time  to  do< 
something  besides  talk.  He  was 
poor  enough,  as  every  one  knew, 
and  owned  no  property  except  a 
mud  hut  that  had  been  wrecked 
by  a  typhoon.  However,  the 
wooden  beams  of  the  old  shack 
were  worth  something,  perhaps 
six  dollars,  Mexican  money,  and 
he  would  give  them  to  start  a' 
fund  for  the  new  church. 

This  charter  subscription  pro- 
duced something  of  a  sensation, 
and  while  the  talk  buzzed  its  way 
through  the  crowd  a  young  man 
arose  and  spoke.  "My  father 
owned  the  house  in  which  we  are 
met  to-day,"  he  began.  "When 
he  died  I  called  for  and  received 
my  share  of  the  money  he  had 
left,  and  I  went  away  and  spent 
it  in  evil  living.  Like  the  prod- 
igal of  old,  when  I  fell  into  desti- 
tution I  came  to  myself  and  became  a  Christian. 
I  joined  the  church  and  am  now  an  exhorter,  as 
you  know.    All  that  I  am  I  owe  to  Jesus  Christ, 


THE    BROTHERS 


156 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


and  the  least  that  I  can  do  is  give  all  I  have  to 
him.  My  money  was  spent  long  ago,  but  I  still 
own  one  half  of  this  house  in  which  we  meet,  and 
I  will  give  that  to  the  new  church." 

Before  the  astonished  people  could  comment 
on  this  subscription  the  elder 
brother  arose  and  said  that 
the  least  that  he  could  do 
would  be  to  give  his  one  half 
of  the  house  to  the  enterprise. 
After  this  stood  up  an  old 
man.  Bent  and  wrinkled 
was  he,  and  withal  he  was 
about  as  poor  as  a  man  could 
be.  But  when  he  smiled  there 
was  something  good  to  look 
upon  in  his  face. 

"My  friends,"  he  began, 
"these  who  have  spoken  have 
told  you  that  they  have  very 
little  to  give.  I  have  less 
than  they.  I  own  no  house, 
nor  any  land,  nor  any  money, 
nor  even  broken  timbers.  No 
pig  nor  cow  is  mine.  It  is  some  years  since  I  gave 
up  the  thought  of  accumulating  anything  for  this 
world,  but  I  have  now  a  place  among  the  many 
mansions  that  Jesus  has  gone  to  prepare.  There 
is,  however,  one  item  of  property  that  I  possess. 
I  have  saved  for  many  years  and  now  own  my 


HIS   PRIZE   POSSESSION 


THE  CHINESE  CHURCH        157 

coffin,  as  my  long  resting  place,  and  it  is  a  very- 
good  coffin.  It  is  worth  perhaps  twenty  dollars, 
and  I  will  give  it  to  help  build  the  church." 

By  that  time  the  fire  burned  in  many  hearts, 
and  to-day  a  new  church  stands  in  that  village. 
Do  the  Chinese  become  Christians  because  some 
one  pays  them  wages  to  join  the  church?  Can 
any  heroic  giving  come  out  of  China?  Come  and 
see !  Any  missionary  who  has  been  long  enough 
in  China  to  get  close  to  the  hearts  of  the  people 
can  tell  of  princely  givers  among  the  common 
people.  Not  all  the  Christians  have  learned  to 
give  like  these  described  here,  but  the  possibilities 
of  such  giving  indicate  capacity  for  splendid 
sacrifice  and  devotion. 

QuEUELEss  Church  Officials 

In  some  parts  of  China  the  cutting  off  of 
queues  has  drawn  a  line  between  the  progres- 
sives and  reactionaries.  Any  man  with  braid 
down  his  back  or  coiled  on  his  head  belongs  to  the 
old  order. 

At  the  fourth  Quarterly  Conference  of  a  cer- 
tain church  the  pastor  made  an  impassioned 
appeal  for  a  real  forward  movement  and  sug- 
gested that  no  man  be  elected  to  office  who  wore  a 
queue.  This  measure  was  adopted  by  a  majority 
vote  of  those  present,  and  then  the  sifting  began. 

A  number  of  the  older  men  still  wore  queues. 
As  their  names  were  called  for  reelection  they 


158  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

were  asked  to  stand.  If  their  heads  showed  a 
modern  hair-cut,  they  were  elected  forthwith.  If 
they  wore  queues,  they  were  escorted  to  the  rear 
of  the  church,  seated  on  a  stool,  and  the  pastor 
himself,  with  a  pair  of  shears,  removed  the  badge 
of  conservatism  from  the  head  of  the  candidate. 
If  he  refused  to  submit,  he  was  promptly  voted 
out  and  another  took  his  place.  When  the  meet- 
ing closed,  that  pastor  had  a  united  and  queueless 
official  board  with  which  to  face  the  new  year's 
work. 

China  has  this  unique  advantage:  the  queues 
are  on  the  outside  of  the  heads.  If  only  all  Amer- 
ican church  officials  would  wear  their  conservative 
badges  thus  exposed  and  accessible,  it  would  be 
easy  to  get  rid  of  them. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  LEAVEN  OF  LIFE 

Indirect  Results — Calloused  Hands — ^A  Cigarette- 
less  Province — Famine  Orphans — Curing  a  Bread 
Line — College  Jinks — ^Matrimonial  Revolution. 

Indikect  Results 

The  larger  harvest  that  grows  from  the  mis- 
sionary's planting  is  never  reaped  by  those  who 
sow  nor  reported  in  any  table  of  figures.  Be- 
side many  waters  the  harvest  ripens  and  the  cur- 
rents of  life  bear  the  seed-corn  of  truth  into  dis- 
tant realms  of  human  ideals  and  conduct.  Much 
of  the  missionary's  work  seems  fruitless,  and  some 
of  it  futile,  but  surprising  by-products  and  in- 
direct results  carry  his  influence  far  beyond  the 
reach  of  his  own  observation. 

Thousands  of  Chinese  attend  mission  schools 
and  do  not  become  Christians,  yet  they  return 
to  their  families  more  or  less  imbued  with  Chris- 
tian ideals  and  with  a  strong  bent  toward  the  for- 
eign way  of  doing  things.  By  their  efficiency  and 
advanced  standards  these  schools  have  compelled 
the  government  schools  to  improve  their  methods 
and  raise  their  requirements.  Without  the  stim- 
ulus of  missionary  example  the  education  of  wo- 

159 


160  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

men  would  not  have  been  undertaken  by  the  gov- 
ernment. The  modern  "natural  foot"  movement 
is  wholly  of  missionary  origin.  Missionary  trans- 
lators have  furnished  the  literature  of  the  new 
China.  The  blind,  the  insane,  the  lepers,  and  the 
outcasts  for  the  first  time  have  received  recogni- 
tion on  the  basis  of  their  needs.  The  anti-opium 
crusade  could  not  have  reached  its  present  suc- 
cessful stage  without  the  support  of  the  mission- 
ary and  the  moral  earnestness  of  the  Christians. 
"Squeeze"  would  still  be  as  respectable  as  uni- 
versal were  it  not  for  the  protests  of  the  Chris- 
tians. Slavery  and  torture  have  received  severe 
checks.  "Baby  towers,"  those  depositories  of 
undesired  girl  babies,  while  still  standing,  are 
hard  to  find,  because  no  one  cares  to  know  where 
they  are;  and  there  are  many  Chinese  who  have 
never  known  an  infant  to  be  exposed  there.  Hos- 
pitals are  revelations  of  cleanness  and  kindness, 
and  missionary  homes  set  standards  that  do  not 
immediately  revolutionize  the  Chinese  customs, 
to  be  sure,  but  have  an  important  influence  on  the 
ideals  of  the  younger  people. 

Moral  and  intellectual  transformations  take 
place  in  hosts  of  people  who  never  become  mem- 
bers of  the  church,  nor  openly  acknowledge  their 
debt  to  the  missionary.  Many  Christian  men 
have  non-Christian  wives,  to  be  sure,  but  these 
wives  of  Christians  have  a  noticeably  better  time 
of  it  than  the  wives  of  their  heathen  neighbors, 


THE  LEAVEN  OF  LIFE         161 

and  the  facts  have  their  weight  in  the  minds  of 
women  who  are  learning  to  think. 

The  missionary  does  not  go  to  China  primarily 
to  change  the  customs  of  the  people.  The  sooner 
he  gets  over  any  such  idea  the  better.  But  un- 
consciously, and  therefore  more  effectively,  he 
reads  into  his  New  Testament  his  own  ideals  of 
cleanness,  fair  play,  hygiene,  monogamy,  health, 
fitness  for  work,  modesty,  comfort,  and  compas- 
sion for  the  suffering. 

Most  striking  is  the  contrast  between  the 
women  of  the  village  street  and  the  girls  in  the 
mission  schools.  Wrinkled  ignorance  and  blank 
hopelessness  are  in  marked  distinction  from  the 
neat,  clean,  intelligent,  winsome  ladylikeness  of 
the  girl  students.  And  yet  the  missionary  did  not 
set  out  primarily  to  develop  new  standards  of 
womanhood  in  China.  He  is  doing  it  because  he 
cannot  help  it. 

The  missionary  did  not  go  to  China  to  establish 
shorter  hours  of  labor  and  living  wages,  but  the 
industrial  by-product  of  his  gospel  must  do  just 
that  in  the  end.  Mission  presses  are  operating  at 
a  great  disadvantage  in  competition  with  native 
printeries,  just  because  the  missionary  manager 
tries  to  treat  his  employees  like  human  beings 
rather  than  brute  cattle. 

Possibly  no  missionary  goes  to  China  with  the 
intention  of  making  improvements  in  the  native 
faiths.    He  is  there  not  to  improve  but  to  sup- 


162  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

plant.  But  as  a  result  of  the  missionary  propa- 
ganda the  old  cults  must  improve  or  perish. 
A  silent  but  very  pervasive  scattering  of  the  eth- 
ical standards  of  Christian  faith  is  taking  place 
among  the  religions  of  the  Far  East.  If  these  re- 
ligions are  to  hold  their  own  at  all  in  competition 
with  Christianity,  it  will  be  because  they  have  bor- 
rowed weapons  and  methods  and  enthusiasm  from 
their  conquerors.  Even  now  there  is  a  propa- 
ganda that  styles  itself  "Confucio-Christianity." 
The  missionary  may  come  to  China  with  the 
ideals  of  a  purely  spiritual  work,  but  he  will  fail 
in  this  unless  he  allows  the  waters  from  the  foun- 
tain of  spiritual  life  to  flow  over  the  whole  field 
of  human  action  and  interest.  The  old  standards 
,of  degraded  womanhood  may  not  be  directly 
attacked,  but  when  women  read  the  New  Testa- 
ment they  unconsciously  but  inevitably  receive 
new  ideals  of  their  personal  dignity  and  high  so- 
cial rights.  Among  Christians  daughters  must  be 
something  more  than  merchandise  and  wives  than 
property.  When  it  comes  to  the  time  for  arrang- 
ing marriage  the  Christian  daughter  finds  herself 
at  a  distinct  advantage  over  her  non-Christian 
friends.  The  happiness  and  preferences  of  the 
young  lady  really  have  some  place  in  the  matter — 
an  un-heard-of  thing  for  her  less  fortunate  friend. 
Christians  make  good  sons-in-law,  and  a  Chris- 
tian husband  has  been  known  blushingly  to  admit 
that  he  was  fond  of  his  wife. 


THE  LEAVEN  OF  LIFE         163 

Just  where  all  the  missionaries'  harvest  shall  be 
found  in  the  great  day  of  reaping,  who  shall  say? 
Certain  it  is  that  new  growth  is  appearing  all  over 
China,  and  they  who  plant  by  many  waters  may 
expect  a  share  in  the  joy  of  those  who  gather  in 
the  sheaves  in  the  great  day. 

Calloused  Hands 

When  a  Chinese  student  can  show  marks  of 
toil  on  his  hands  something  revolutionary  has 
happened.    Either  he  is  destitute  or  transformed. 

A  few  years  ago,  at  the  close  of  a  school  term, 
the  principal  addressed  the  students,  telling  them 
that  a  new  policy  would  be  inaugurated  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  new  term.  Thereafter  no  student 
would  be  admitted  unless  he  could  pay  his  own 
expenses.  All  the  young  men  were  exhorted  to 
go  home,  cut  off  their  long  finger  nails,  go  to  work 
during  the  vacation  and  make  themselves  of  some 
use.  If  they  needed  money,  let  them  earn  some 
for  their  expenses. 

When  the  new  term  opened,  all  the  best  stu- 
dents were  on  hand  for  registration.  Those  who 
failed  to  appear  had  never  been  a  credit  to  the 
school.  One  of  the  former  students,  standing 
before  the  principal,  held  up  his  hands,  and  with 
great  pride,  said,  "Teacher,  see  these !" 

"Well,  what  is  the  matter  with  them?"  asked 
the  principal,  who  had  for  the  moment  forgotten 
his  instructions. 


164 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


Disappointment  showed  on  the  student's  face. 
He  looked  at  his  hands  again  and  said  earnestly, 
"Feel  of  them." 

And  they  were  good  to  feel.  Hard  and  cal- 
loused those  hands  were  from  hard  work  at  home. 
He  had  taken  his  teacher  literally  and  had  become 


INDUSTRIAL    MISSION 


a  forerunner  of  the  new  order  of  industrial  tram- 
ing  in  China. 

In  one  university  in  central  China  a  class  of 
rich  men's  sons  digs  ditches,  and  one  day  stood 
before  the  camera  when  every  man  in  the  class 
had  blisters  or  blood  on  his  hands.  And  they  took 
it  as  a  joke.  Yet  there  are  (a  few)  people  who 
think  that  China  does  not  move.  Come  and 
see! 


THE  LEAVEN  OF  LIFE 


165 


A  CiGAKETTELESS  PROVINCE 


Coal  oil  and  cigarettes  are  the  most-in-evidence 
American  products  in  China.  Kerosene  is  a  bless- 
ing, cigarettes  a  curse.  Amer- 
^ican  dealers  in  "coffin  nails" 
planned  a  grand  business  cam- 
paign in  the  twenty-million 
province  of  Fukien.  It  would 
have  been  a  great  success  but 
for  one  little  item,  overlooked 
by  the  campaigners.  That 
item  was  the  missionary,  and 
the  cigarette  men  learned  a 
wholesome  lesson. 

Agents  were  sent  out  with 
money  and  an  ingenious  ad- 
vertising campaign  was  pro- 
jected. The  closing  out  of  the 
opium  business  left  a  great 
market  for  some  substitute, 
and  surely  cigarettes  would 
fill  both  the  vacancy  and  the 
pockets  of  the  manufacturers. 
Free  samples,  alluring  prom- 
ises, attractive  agencies,  plaus- 
ible recommendations,  and 
thorough  distribution  all  combined  to  make  the 
new  substitute  for  the  black  pill  an  immediate 
commercial  success. 


FORGOT    THE    CHURCH 


166  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

All  would  have  gone  well — for  the  dealers — 
had  it  not  been  for  the  forgotten  missionary.  Of 
course  business  men  could  not  be  expected  to  take 
account  of  mere  missionaries. 

That  is  where  they  made  their  mistake.  The 
missionaries  did  object  very  seriously  to  the  cig- 
arette. The  agents  smiled — the  missionaries  went 
to  work.  A  campaign  of  information  was 
launched,  sermons  were  preached  everywhere, 
mass  meetings  were  held  in  Foochow;  officials, 
business  men  and  scholars  were  interested  and  in- 
formed. Indignation  rose  steadily,  protests 
rolled  up,  cigarette  stocks  were  destroyed  or  re- 
turned, dealers  were  notified  to  stop  handling  the 
foreign  poison,  agents  were  requested  to  leave  the 
province,  and,  worst  of  all,  the  aroused  people 
would  not  buy  the  goods ! 

Of  course  the  cigarette  men  won  out  in  the  end? 

Well,  a  year  after  the  campaign  I  traveled  four 
hundred  miles  in  the  interior  of  Fukien  and  spent 
some  time  in  Foochow  and  other  cities  smaller  in 
population,  and  I  failed  to  see  or  smell  a  single 
cigarette  anywhere  in  the  province. 

To  have  thwarted  the  heavily  financed  schemes 
of  a  big  tobacco  trust,  to  have  awakened  a  public 
conscience  on  the  subject  of  narcotics,  and  to  have 
delivered  as  many  people  as  live  in  New  England 
from  the  bondage  of  the  commercial  cigarette  is 
no  small  matter.  And  yet  there  are  people  who 
say  that  the  missionary  has  no  influence. 


THE  LEAVEN  OF  LIFE 


167 


Famine  Orphans 

Under  normal  conditions  there  are,  construc- 
tively, no  orphans  in  China.  If  a  boy's  parents 
die,  his  next  of  kin  becomes  his  legal  parent  and 
he  is  never  detached  from  family  bonds. 

Famine  conditions,  however,  break  up  this  con- 
tinuity of  family  life.  When  parents,  uncles,  and 
nearly  all  other  relatives  are  dead  or  scattered 
afar,  thousands  of  children  are  left  like  driftwood, 


MONDAY    MORNING    AT    THE    ORPHANAGE 

to  shift  for  themselves;  and  no  one  has  thought 
to  do  anything  for  these  homeless  waifs  except 
the  missionary. 

At  Chinkiang  these  destitute  children  have 
been  gathered  into  a  Christian  Home,  extended 
to  include  room  enough  to  house  the  big  family. 
This  may  be  an  orphanage,  but  it  is  something 
more.  The  love  and  care  of  a  missionary's  home 
life  is  extended  to  every  wretched  little  wanderer 


168 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


who  comes  to  the  gate.  Just  how  two  hearts  may 
be  large  enough  to  take  them  all  in  may  be  a 
problem  until  you  meet  these  two  missionaries, 
and  then  you  can  understand. 

There  is  a  chapel  room,  of 
course,  and  good  places  to  eat 
and  sleep,  but  there  is  more 
than  that.  There  is  a  farm 
where  the  boys  work  regular 
hours  and  raise  many  things 
good  to  eat  in  China.  Sheep, 
pigs  (of  course),  chickens,  and 
cows  look  well  kept  and  pros- 
perous. The  rudiments  of  sev- 
eral trades  are  taught  and  hard 
work  keeps  the  boys  in  trim  for 
school  and  play.  The  girls  are 
taught  to  sew,  cook,  weave,  and 
make  various  articles  of  use  in 
Chinese  homes.  Regular  school 
hours  are  maintained  for  boys 
and  girls  in  separate  buildings. 
Daily  chapel  service,  Bible 
classes,  Sunday  school  and 
kindly  personal  oversight  furnish  an  environment 
that  can  have  but  one  result — practically  all  of 
these  boys  and  girls  become  Christians  as  they 
grow  up. 

Special  classes  are  now  organized  among  the 
older  boys  who  have  planned  to  become  preachers. 


''4wfe^ 


ORPHANS   FARMING 


THE  LEAVEN  OF  LIFE         169 

How  far  the  lives  of  some  of  these  abandoned 
babies  may  yet  reach  no  man  may  know,  but  that 
a  radio-center  of  Christian  Hf  e  has  been  set  up  on 
a  hilltop  in  Chinkiang,  there  is  not  the  slightest 
reason  for  doubt. 

Lest  some  pious  friend  in  America  may  reflect 
that  some  little  part  of  his  missionary  offering 
goes  to  the  support  of  this  good  work,  let  it  be 
said  that  nothing  of  the  kind  happens.  This  good 
missionary  and  his  wife  do  not  receive  a  dollar  of 
missionary  money,  but  are  supported  by  a  devout 
woman  in  America,  who  toils  and  saves  enough 
beyond  her  own  bread  and  butter  to  keep  these 
people  at  work  in  central  China.  It  takes  several 
hundreds  of  dollars  a  year  to  do  it,  but  it  multi- 
plies the  life  of  that  earnest  woman  several  hun- 
dred times  in  China.  With  no  hope  of  reward,  or 
recognition,  or  promotion  or  anything  else  except 
the  satisfaction  of  following  in  the  steps  of  their 
Master,  these  two  faithful  and  efficient  souls  are 
putting  their  lives  into  boys  and  girls,  trusting  for 
the  reapers'  just  reward  in  the  great  day  of  the 
harvest. 


MAKING    MEN 


170  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

Curing  a  Bread  Line 

Poor,  splendid  old  Nanking,  she  has  had 
trouble  enough  since  the  days  of  her  Ming  glory. 
The  Tai  Pings  took  eleven  years  to  get  through 
her  gate,  but  the  revolution  of  1913  left  her  water 
front  a  smoking  ruin,  and  when  the  trouble  sub- 
sided and  peace  reigned  once  more  the  sun  rose 


PESTILENCE,    FILTH    AND    DEATH    HERE 

on  a  hundred  thousand  starving  refugees  huddled 
in  the  streets  and  crawling  into  infested  huts.  In 
time  relief  funds  began  to  arrive  and  were  put 
into  the  hands  of  competent  persons  for  adminis- 
tration. 

Under  ordinary  circumstances  this  would  be 
the  end  of  the  story.  There  was  in  this  case,  how- 
ever, one  extraordinary  circumstance — ^Joseph  E. 
Bailey  by  name,  who  was  put  in  charge  of  the  rice 
line.    Now,  Bailey  had  come  to  China  to  teach 


THE  LEAVEN  OF  LIFE         171 

higher  mathematics  to  any  who  eared  to  learn. 
He  was  a  success  in  the  classroom,  but  he  had  al- 
ready been  looking  for  something  that  came 
nearer  to  the  needs  of  starving  people  than 
ellipses  and  cosines. 

When  Bailey  got  hold  of  that  hunger  brigade 
it  took  him  just  two  days  to  see  that  the  longer 
that  crowd  of  beggars  was  fed  on  the  hand-out 
basis,  the  more  helpless  it  would  become.  Being 
an  Irishman,  he  set  his  wits  to  work  and  began  to 
hire  the  hungry  coolies  instead  of  treating  them. 

How  could  he  hire  them  when  there  was  no 
work  to  do?  That  is  just  where  this  story  comes 
in.  He  put  the  men  to  making  roads  and  the  wo- 
men to  cutting  grass  on  the  hills,  and  he  paid 
everybody  every  night.  But  there  was  a  limit  to 
the  grass-cutting  and  road-building,  and  also  to 
the  relief  funds.  What  was  needed  was  some 
plan  that  would  make  these  people  grow  their 
own  food. 

All  around  Nanking  there  are  large  areas  of 
"second-grade"  land  that  has  lain  bare  for  cen- 
turies because  it  cannot  be  profitably  cultivated 
on  the  age-old  Chinese  methods.  Then  Bailey 
got  his  idea.  Scientific  methods  of  farming  would 
make  those  people  self-supporting  on  that  land. 
Temporary  use  of  the  Purple  Mountain  country 
was  easily  secured  and  the  real  cure  for  the  bread- 
line began.  From  pest-ridden  huts  and  open 
streets  five  hundred  people  were  moved  out  into 


172  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

new  huts  on  this  land,  and  put  to  work  making 
improvements.  But  the  new  huts  did  not  lower 
the  death  rate  as  fast  as  Bailey  thought  desirable, 
and  a  big  brick  yard  came  into  existence.  Strong 
brick  and  tile  houses  were  put  up,  and  then  the 
mortality  fell  to  something  like  normal.  Fertil- 
izer was  hauled  up  from  the  lake  bottom  and 
spread  over  the  land.  A  good  road  was  built  to 
and  through  the  tract.  A  plan  of  Chinese  super- 
vision was  devised  and  every  man  was  assigned 
his  part  of  the  work  and  promised  his  little  plot 
of  ground  for  his  personal  reward  if  he  made 
good. 

California  nursery  men  were  interested  and 
sent  large  consignments  of  fruit  trees,  vines, 
seeds,  and  shrubs,  and  most  of  them  flourished 
in  the  new  environment.  Trees,  vegetables,  ber- 
ries, grasses,  and  vines  sprang  up.  Giant  castor 
beans  and  timber  trees  changed  the  color  of  the 
horizon.  And  the  evening  and  the  morning 
marked  a  new  thing  under  the  Chinese  sun. 

Then  came  the  organization  of  the  Nanking 
Famine  Colonization  Association  in  connection 
with  the  work  of  the  University  of  Nanking. 
Students  of  the  new  Department  of  Agriculture 
went  out  onto  the  land  and  took  charge  of  the 
development  work.  Sons  of  blue-blooded  aristo- 
crats, who  had  never  in  all  their  lives  done  a  stroke 
of  work,  went  out  there  and  got  down  in  the 
ditches  and  dug  fertilizer  with  the  coolies.    Here 


THE  LEAVEN  OF  LIFE 


178 


are  a  dozen  of  them  with  bleeding  and  blistered 

hands  and  not  a  word  of  complaint.    And  this  in 

China!    How  do  you  account  for  it?    Well,  you 

see,  it  is  this  way :  Bailey  does  it  himself,  and  there 

is  nothing  left  for  the  student 

to  do  but  to  fall  in  line  and 

keep  up  with  him — if  he  can. 

I  saw  a  grandson  of  a  high 

Cabinet  official  hard  at  it  with 

the  others.    If  a  student  will 

not  work,  there  is  but  one 

alternative:  he  must  change 

his  major. 

About  this  time  Chinese 
officials  began  to  notice  that 
something  was  happening  at 
Nanking.  After  much  in- 
vestigation, a  proclamation 
was  issued  stating  that  the 
work  was  practical  and  un- 
selfish and  worthy  of  the  sup- 
port of  all  public-spirited 
people.  This  paper  was  hauling  fertilizer 
signed  by  nearly  everybody  in  the  Chinese  king- 
row,  including  Yuan  Shih  Kai,  Sun  Yat  Sen, 
Wu  Ting  Fang,  and  twenty-seven  others  like 
unto  them.  And  the  minister  of  agriculture 
headed  a  subscription  list  with  one  hundred  dol- 
lars per  month  for  expenses. 

Next  came  the  permanent  setting  aside  of  the 


174  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

whole  Purple  Mountain  tract  with  its  ten  thou- 
sand acres  for  the  work  of  the  Association.  Now, 
at  last,  there  was  land  enough  and  to  spare.  A 
plan  was  worked  out  for  extending  the  improve- 
ments through  a  series  of  years.  Within  a  year 
and  a  half  five  hundred  people  were  made  self- 
supporting  and  another  five  hundred  started  on 
their  way  to  independence. 

A  visit  to  the  model  farms  reveals  some  inter- 
esting things.  Acres  of  young  nursery  stock, 
peach  and  &g  trees  beginning  to  bear,  oranges 
and  lemons  thriving  in  Chinese  soil,  vines  and 
vegetables  all  looking  vigorous  and  thrifty.  All 
of  these  were  growing  on  dry  land  by  methods 
new  to  the  people.  By  the  wet-rice  methods  of 
the  past  the  people  had  not  found  these  lands 
worth  cultivating  at  all. 

The  most  interesting  feature  of  this  whole 
exhibit  was  a  farmer  that  I  found  on  the  land.  In 
a  pouring  rain  he  piloted  me  about  the  place, 
eager  to  show  me  something  else  a  little  further 
on.  He  explained,  he  enthused,  he  pointed  with 
pride,  till  we  had  hard  work  to  get  away  from  him 
at  all.  There  seemed  no  limit  to  the  interest  of 
this  coolie.  Who  would  have  believed  that  this 
starving  beggar  could  have  been  brought  to  such 
a  pitch  of  enthusiasm  in  two  years?  There  had 
been  something  born  in  the  man — a  sense  of 
ownership  and  independence;  part  of  that  land 
was  to  be  his  very  own.    The  improvement  in  the 


THE  LEAVEN  OF  LIFE         175 

land  was  a  small  matter  as  compared  with  the 
transformation  of  the  man.  And  official  China 
is  watching  this  work  as  it  gathers  headway. 

Bailey  says  that  if  he  could  get  a  half  dozen 
young  Americans  with  training  in  scientific  agri- 
culture and  forestry,  he  could  revolutionize  the 
industrial  life  of  all  central  China.  "Go  home," 
he  said  to  me,  "and  tell  some  of  those  fellows  that 
there  is  a  chance  here  to  reach  out  a  thousand 
miles  and  touch  millions  of  lives.  This  is  one  of 
the  biggest  job^  in  the  world." 

There  is  one  other  item,  worthy  of  note :  Joseph 
E.  Bailey  is  a  missionary.  The  University  of 
Nanking  is  a  missionary  institution  and  every 
Sunday  these  farmers  come  together  for  a  Chris- 
tian service.  For  some  reason  no  one  but  a  mis- 
sionary thought  it  worth  while  to  do  the  con- 
structive thing  for  the  permanent  cure  of  starva- 
tion among  a  destitute  people,  and  it  seems  that 
the  religious  features  of  the  work  do  not  interfere 
with  the  growing  of  crops  or  the  making  of  men. 

College  Jinks 

Chinese  humor  has  a  quality  and  keenness  all 
its  own,  and  he  who  thinks  that  these  Orientals 
cannot  make  or  love  a  joke  is  very  apt  to  become 
himself  a  huge  joke  in  their  eyes. 

There  is  nothing  dense  about  a  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  jinks  night  in  any  mission 
college.    A  foreigner  who  has  college  traditions 


176  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

and  humor  in  his  system  can  understand  it  all 
without  an  interpreter.  All  he  needs  is  a  working 
knowledge  of  student  psychology  and  a  keen 
sense  of  humor,  and  without  these  he  would  be 
mystified  in  any  American  school  on  stunt  night. 

Serious  matters  come  first,  as  becomes  a  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  and  in  accord  with 
general  Oriental  custom.  A  prayer  by  the  col- 
lege president,  an  address  by  the  Student  Asso- 
ciation president  setting  forth  the  aims  and 
purposes  of  the  organization,  and  exhorting  the 
non-members  to  join,  a  speech  by  a  visiting 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  secretary  on 
"Opportunity" — these  have  the  usual  flavor  of 
such  events  elsewhere. 

Now  comes  a  keen  student  with  a  report  of  a 
student  conference  held  during  the  past  summer. 
His  Chinese  is  vigorous  and  the  interpretation 
thereof  is  interesting,  but  his  descriptions  and 
imitations  of  yells,  songs,  games,  and  comical  inci- 
dents are  so  graphic  as  to  leave  little  for  the  inter- 
preter to  do.  As  he  warms  to  his  story  applause 
and  laughter  interrupt  him  frequently  and  enthu- 
siasm begins  to  climb. 

Now  the  real  fun  begins.  Two  students  put 
on  a  "musical"  number  under  the  guise  of  a  house- 
holder who  hires  a  servant  to  assist  in  an  impor- 
tant performance.  After  much  circumlocution, 
during  which  the  curiosity  of  the  audience  had  full 
sway,  the  said  performance  was  found  to  consist 


THE  LEAVEN  OF  LIFE         177 

in  the  rendering  of  a  crude  imitation  of  the  Chi- 
nese national  air  (the  tune  of  "America")  upon  a 
common  bicycle  pump,  the  employer  holding  his 
thumb  over  the  tube  and  the  servant  working  the 
handle  in  time  with  the  tune.  As  the  students 
recognized  the  rough  imitation  of  the  tune  emerg- 
ing amid  the  gasps  and  wheezes  of  the  pump,  the 
uproar  broke  beyond  bounds  and  the  "music" 
was  lost  in  the  roar. 

The  following  number  is  also  musical.  With 
many  flourishes  the  speaker  announces  that  he  is 
about  to  give  a  complete  course  in  music.  Di- 
plomas will  be  granted  at  the  end  of  three  minutes 
and  all  graduates  will  be  guaranteed  positions  at 
salaries  of  one  hundred  and  eighty  dollars  per 
month.  Who  will  now  come  forward  and  register 
for  the  course  ? 

Suspicion  settled  down  upon  the  audience. 
The  program  cannot  proceed  without  students; 
who  will  come? 

Several  sheepish,  grinning  students  finally 
come  forward.  These  take  seats  on  the  platform, 
and  all  are  asked  to  listen  attentively  while  the 
music  begins.  Out  in  the  vestibule,  pandemo- 
nium breaks  forth.    It  is  the  "orchestra." 

A  prize  is  now  offered  to  the  student  who  can 
identify,  by  ear,  the  largest  number  of  musical 
instruments  used  to  produce  that  bedlam.  "Tin 
coal  oil  cans,"  "Empty  soap  boxes,"  "Combs," 
"Cowbells,"  and  other  good  guesses  come  thick 


178  CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 

and  fast.  One  student  on  the  platform  is  selected 
to  receive  the  prize.  The  orchestra  is  now 
marched  into  the  hall.  Most  of  the  instruments 
named  are  present  and  in  addition  one  boy  carries 
an  inverted  bathtub,  while  another  pounds  it  with 
a  stick.  One  tin  fife  supplies  the  only  semblance 
of  tune  in  the  aggregation.  The  leader  of  this 
orchestra,  en  mashe,  poses  before  the  prize 
winner,  focuses  a  "camera"  before  him,  from 
which  springs  a  paper  snake,  upon  the  appear- 
ance of  which  is  precipitated  a  condition  of  gen- 
eral pandemonium. 

The  closing  number  is  milder  in  tone.  A  stu- 
dent tells  of  his  vacation  trip  during  which  he  saw 
the  greatest  sweet  potato  on  earth.  (In  central 
China  a  sweet  potato  has  a  personal  significance 
equivalent  to  that  of  a  "cabbage  head"  in  Amer- 
ica.) To  anyone  who  will  come  to  the  platform 
the  speaker  will  be  pleased  to  extend  the  courtesy 
of  a  look,  free  of  charge,  at  this  monster  vege- 
table, which  he  has  concealed  in  a  large  box  be- 
hind the  desk. 

One  curious  student  comes  forward,  where- 
upon the  speaker  whips  out  from  the  box  a  hand 
mirror  and  holds  it  before  the  face  of  the  would- 
be  sight-seer. 

More  fun  is  enjoyed,  general  conversation  fol- 
lows, introductions  of  new  students  to  old  ones  are 
given,  warm  welcome  to  the  foreign  visitor  is  ex- 
tended, then  lights  are  out,  and  all  are  off  to  bed. 


THE  LEAVEN  OF  LIFE         179 

Matrimonial  Revolution 

It  was  in  central  China  that  a  young  man  from 
the  college  went  to  the  matron  of  the  girls'  school 
and  asked  for  the  hand  in  marriage  of  one  of  the 
young  women. 

In  accordance  with  missionary  standards,  but 
against  all  Chinese  precedent,  the  matter  was 
referred  to  the  young  lady  for  her  personal  deci- 
sion. And — horror  of  horrors! — the  yoimg  wo- 
man did  not  like  the  looks  of  the  student  and  de- 
clined his  proffered  honor  with  thanks. 

Here  was  a  totally  unheard-of  thing  under  the 
Chinese  sun,  and  when  the  result  was  reported  to 
the  astonished  student  he  became  the  butt  of  more 
jokes  and  jibes  than  Chinese  human  nature  could 
stand.  Being  outraged  beyond  all  endurance, 
he  left  school  and  betook  himself  several  hundred 
miles  hence,  where  he  fondly  hoped  that  none 
would  hear  of  his  disgrace. 

Miss  Jones,  of  Minchang,  is  responsible  for 
this  delicious  bit  of  fundamental  human  nature 
breaking  through  the  crust  of  the  ages :  A  certain 
Mr.  Hi,  student  in  the  boys'  school,  called  upon 
the  matron  of  the  girls'  school  and  asked  for  the 
hand  of  Miss  Ling.  To  which  Miss  Ling  replied, 
"Why,  no ;  I  am  going  to  marry  Mr.  Li." 

"But,"  replied  the  astonished  missionary, 
"how  do  you  know  you  are  going  to  marry  Mr, 
Li?    He  has  never  asked  for  you." 


180 


CHINA  INSIDE  OUT 


"O,  that  is  all  right,"  remarked  the  rising  new 
woman  of  China.  "He  and  I  have  looked  at  each 
other  in  chapel  a  long  time  now." 

And,  mirabile  dictu,  within  an  hour  from  that 
moment,  Mr.  Li  appeared  and  respectfully  asked 
for  the  hand  of  Miss  Ling  in  marriage. 

Did  he  get  her? 


CHINESE  SCHOOL  GIRLS 


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